Vol. 543 No. 2
87 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the most common age group involved in road traffic accidents, especially serious and fatal accidents; the estimated number of inexperienced drivers who will seek provisional driving licences over the next five years; the issues which have been considered to improve road safety education for this targeted group; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26288/01]
The annual reports of the National Roads Authority detailing road accident statistics include details of casualties classified by road user type and age. The latest report, Road Accident Facts 2000, is available in the Oireachtas Library. It can be seen from this report that the highest number of casualties for the age groups recorded occurred in the 25-34 age group. The total num ber of casualties in that age group was 2,676, which represents 21% of the overall total for the year.
It is not possible to provide a firm estimate of future demand for provisional driving licences, but having regard to the demographic profile and trends in recent years it is anticipated that demand for first time provisional licences in the lower categories of licences will be of the order of 350,000 to 400,000 over the next five years. Since June 2001, all first time applicants for a provisional licence are required to have already passed the new driver theory test.
Education and information are recognised in the Government road safety strategy 1998-2002 as being vital to forming good road safety habits in younger people who are the adult road users of the future. The National Safety Council was assigned the lead role by the Government strategy for road safety for the development of a resource pack on road safety for input into the social, personal, health and education programme in the new primary school curriculum. The resource pack called Be Safe was launched in September 2000 and over 30,000 copies of the pack have been distributed to primary school teachers, principals and boards of management.
The NSC has also developed a secondary school transition year resource project on road safety. This resource was pilot tested in 20 secondary schools throughout the country and was launched on 10 September 2001. This resource will complement existing activities in secondary schools. The council also regularly targets young drivers in its public media campaigns.
My Department was represented on a task group set up by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA, in autumn 2000 at the request of the Minister for Education and Science to look at the whole area of driver education. The task group submitted its report to the Minister for Education and Science and I understand that he has authorised the NCCA to proceed with the research phase of a project on driver education recommended in the report.
