I apologise on behalf of the chairman, Mr. Gay Byrne, who unfortunately has a prior commitment at DCU where he is a member of the board. As directed by the Chairman, I will liaise with the clerk regarding a suitable date for Mr. Byrne to attend the committee.
I thank members for the opportunity to attend the committee this morning to make a brief presentation and to answer any questions they may wish to put to me as CEO of the Road Safety Authority. I assume members of the committee received a copy of my submission in advance and for that reason I will highlight some of the key points, bearing in mind the time limit.
The submission is in five parts. Part 1 seeks to give an overview of some of the key points reflecting road safety today. Part 2 draws attention to the key messages now being highlighted by the Road Safety Authority to the broadest spectrum of road users. Part 3 highlights some of the benefits accruing from best practice across all of the agencies working in road safety. Part 4 provides more detailed information and highlights some of the RSA's earlier work in trying to assess the level of public support for some interventions. Given the lead shown by this committee on random breath testing and other initiatives, it is important we report to it what we find when we run our advertising campaigns on drink driving.
As this is the first time I have been before the committee, I want to outline the Road Safety Authority's functions since 1 September and give a brief overview of some our current projects. Since 1990, there have been 10,000 fewer deaths and serious injuries on Irish roads, a potential economic saving of €2 billion. In the same period, 100% more vehicles have been licensed. The current road safety strategy is based on the three E's — education, enforcement and engineering. It is important to restate that according to our research, 92% of fatalities on Irish roads are directly attributable to road user behaviour. Speed is the major factor: 40% of fatal collisions are caused by excessive and inappropriate speed. From our statistics, 40% of road fatalities in Ireland are related to alcohol, whether on the part of drunk drivers, riders or pedestrians.
Random breath testing has been in place for a number of months. The period from July to October 2006 saw 30 fewer people killed on the roads in comparison with the same period in 2005. This represents a 21% drop in road deaths in a four-month period. The number of serious injuries we would assume would accrue in that period would be more than 300. It is much too early to say this is directly attributable to mandatory alcohol testing but it is interesting that the period coincides with the introduction of random breath testing. One can look at the experience in other countries. When Switzerland introduced random breath testing in 2005, there was an immediate 25% reduction in fatalities. Our early figures give us heart and reinforce the correctness of the policy. We will monitor this because we want three or four years' data before we come back to say definitively that it works but we are now back in the space as a nation where we were in November 2002 with the introduction of penalty points. With the continued support of the public and levels of enforcement, particularly in respect of mandatory alcohol testing, this trend will, one hopes, continue.
The wearing of seat belts is still an issue.Our last survey shows that 40% of primary schoolchildren and 45% of secondary schoolchildren are not belting up in the back seat on the school run. We did a lot of work during the summer to ensure the use of seat belts on school buses. The European directive on the mandatory wearing of seat belts and child restraints is now in place and we are targeting parents and young people to increase the level of seat belt wearing and the correct use of child safety seats and restraints. In one of our surveys, staff went into supermarket car parks and engaged with parents, examining the seats that were fitted. Almost 80% were incorrectly fitted, so there is a major job for us to do to educate parents. We have a DVD and other programmes to achieve that aim.
The most recent research shows that across Europe up to 20% of collisions are possibly the result of driver fatigue. Recent research from Loughborough University sleep disorder unit tells us that fatigue is as dangerous as driving at or above the drink-driving limit. Last week we launched our most recent campaign on driver fatigue targeted at long distance drivers, shift workers and people with sleep disorders.
Currently in Ireland, young men are most at risk on our roads. Those between 17 and 24 years of age are between seven and eight times more likely to be killed or seriously injured than any other age group. This constitutes a massive over-representation of young people, particularly when we consider that this age group makes up only 6% of the population. The reason for this statistic is driver inexperience. For every kilometre driven, a 17 year old male is eight times more likely to be involved in a crash than a middle-aged man. This is a stark statistic.
Members are well aware of the times of day at which most collisions take place. The most dangerous period on the roads is Friday, Saturday, Sunday and the early hours of Monday morning when 60% of road traffic accidents take place.
In terms of the road network, the safest roads are motorways and high quality dual carriageways. Regional and local roads make up 94% of the road network, take 52% of traffic volumes and are the location for 60% of fatal collisions. Issues clearly arise with regard to the condition of our roads. The more engineering interventions take place, particularly in developing motorways and high quality dual carriageways, the better will be the outcome.
As the key messages are set out in the presentation, I do not propose to refer to each of them. However, I draw members' attention to point 7 which reflects on recent changes in the Road Traffic Act 2006. This legislation gives the Garda powers to conduct mandatory roadside testing, a system that resulted in a decrease of 25% in the number of road traffic accidents following its introduction in Switzerland. The Act also provides for the establishment of a network of safety cameras for which tenders will go out shortly. In France, the number of crashes declined by 85% at sites at which safety cameras were introduced. The Road Safety Authority will closely monitor this development and wants significant research carried out to compare the position before and after the introduction of safety cameras. Its role in this regard will be to ensure members of the public understand the benefits of safety cameras and the reasons they are being introduced in order that they will buy into the concept. We will also seek to ensure we do not repeat some of the mistakes made in other jurisdictions. The ban on hand-held mobile phones is in place. The authority seeks to ensure public awareness and information campaigns are carried out to reinforce the measures I have outlined.
The benefits of improved road safety are listed on page 6 of the presentation. The joint committee will be aware of the work of Peter Bacon who demonstrated that every euro invested in road safety delivered a potential €8 in return. The main benefits in reducing the numbers of deaths and serious injuries are as follows: the freeing of scarce accident and emergency department and emergency service resources; potentially freeing beds and resources in the acute hospital network; reducing welfare payments arising from death and serious injury; maintaining taxation revenues; reducing insurance premia; avoiding the distress caused in the community; and better use of road infrastructure.
In the six months following the introduction of penalty points in November 2002 the number of admissions to the national spinal injuries unit in the Mater Hospital resulting from road collisions decreased by 50%. People changed their behaviour for a period but we have since lost some of the ground that was made up. The number of admissions to Beaumont Hospital as a direct result of road traffic accidents declined by 44% during the same period. In Cork University Hospital the number of admissions to the accident and emergency unit as a result of road collisions fell by 20%, while the decline in the number of collision related attendances in Tralee General Hospital was 26%.
When measures such as penalty points are introduced with public support and backed up with enforcement, they pay off. We hope there will be a similar pay-off from the increasing use of penalty points, the roll-out of mandatory alcohol testing and, in 2007, the introduction of safety cameras. The Road Safety Authority will closely monitor the position.
Page 8 of the presentation features a series of graphs to show who is responsible for fatalities and serious injuries on the roads. The number of deaths from road traffic accidents is seven times greater than the number of murders. Road traffic accidents are a significant killer. The most interesting feature highlighted in the graphs is on page 9. The top graph shows the decline in the numbers killed and seriously injured since the baseline year of 1990. Since 1990 there have been 9,515 fewer deaths and serious injuries. The economic saving from this decrease exceeds €2 billion. Over the same period, as a second graph on page 9 shows, the number of registered vehicles in the State has increased by 100%. Notwithstanding this, the numbers for deaths and serious injuries are declining against a 100% increase in the number of registered vehicles.
On the top of page 10 the main causes of death and injury are highlighted, namely, excessive and inappropriate speed, driving while intoxicated through drugs or alcohol, driver fatigue, failure to wear seatbelts, failure to restrain children properly and failure to recognise vulnerable road users. A graph highlights the roads on which fatalities and serious injuries are occurring.
Penalty points in other countries are highlighted on page 11. When France introduced penalty points, there was a 32% reduction in the number of road deaths between 2001 and 2004. France is now being held up as one of the best countries in Europe in terms of the progress it has made in such a short time. In Austria there was a reduction of 75 in the number of road deaths per year after it introduced penalty points.
As regards speed cameras, the number of collisions at camera sites has dropped by 85% in France. Despite a lot of public disquiet about speed or safety cameras, there has been a 50% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured at speed camera sites in the United Kingdom.
As regards random breath-testing, I have given the joint committee the early view in terms of month-on-month figures. In Switzerland there was a 25% drop when it was introduced. Many other countries started a long way ahead of Ireland. Sweden, for example, has had a 20-year head start. By learning from other countries, with the legislative support we have received from the Oireachtas and the enforcement system now in place, Ireland can perhaps short-circuit the process and not take as long. It may be able to achieve in four or five years what other countries have taken much longer to do. Clearly, we know what is working in other countries and have in place many of the building blocks to deliver on this.
Our perception of public support for this work is highlighted on page 13. The headline on the top graph concerns the last survey we did which checked that our road safety advertising campaigns and drink driving advertisements were reaching the audience. Some 79% of respondents told us that they wanted to see more people being breath-tested. I know from talking to members of the Garda Síochána that when they engage in random breath-testing, there is a lot of support and enthusiasm among the public for that level of enforcement. Some 77% of drivers in our survey wanted more severe penalties for drink driving. Therefore, the public is with us.
On page 14 we show what people saw as shameful behaviour in society. Sexual abuse was considered the most shameful, followed by drug dealing, drink driving and speeding down to tax evasion among others. In the public's mind, drink driving and road safety issues are very much at the top of the list.
I want to alert the joint committee to a graph on page 15. We asked the firm Millward Brown to do this research for us and a sample of people what issues were important to them. Health care was the most important, followed by road safety, at just 2% behind, ahead of drugs, crime, education, unemployment, waste management, the environment, sports and leisure, and other issues.
The Road Safety Authority has been established in law since 1 September. We have responsibility for delivering the driver testing and licensing service, as well as for all the road safety work previously done by the National Safety Council. The authority is also responsible for everything to do with vehicle testing and standards, oversight of the NCT and commercial vehicle roadworthiness testing. Road safety research was previously a function of the National Roads Authority. It was transferred to the Road Safety Authority on 1 September. The RSA also has certain road haulage functions such as the issuing of digital tacographs and, alongside the Garda Síochána, enforcement activity as it relates to haulage licences, tacographs and drivers' hours.
A new piece of our work involves regulation of the driving instruction industry. Currently, the industry is unregulated. We need to have approved driving instructors in place in order that we can properly address how drivers are taught. We can then introduce measures such as compulsory basic tuition, in respect of which we published our proposals and engaged in extensive public consultation which closed on 8 September. We hope to have regulated driving instructors by July 2007. Driver vocational training is the subject of a new European directive for professional drivers and we have been tasked with putting that measure in place. Driver vocational training forms part of a new EU directive for professional drivers, but we are not tasked with its implementation.
The current road safety strategy expires on 31 December and we are tasked in law with producing the next one and presenting it to the Oireachtas. We are working on proposals, some of which entail a review of the current strategy. We have advertised public consultation and been overwhelmed by the response from members of the public who have set out what they want the agencies to do. We are also in possession of a great deal of research from other countries. We hope to bring a strategy to the board in January with a view to providing it for the Minister in February or March and subsequently the Oireachtas.
We are carrying out the review of the roadworthiness testing regime for buses and commercial vehicles, which the Oireachtas asked for following some of the school bus incidents earlier in the year. The process is well under way and three public meetings are being held with the industry in Limerick, Cork and Dublin. We hope to have the work completed by the end of December for production to the Oireachtas.
I have alluded to the regulatory system governing the driving instruction industry. The key issues are compulsory basic training for motor cyclists, the reduction of the driver-testing backlog, better education in schools and promotional campaigns.
