The chairperson of the Road Safety Authority, Liz O’Donnell has welcomed measures agreed by the Cabinet to reduce speed limits.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show, Ms O’Donnell said she was very pleased that the matter had been given sufficient priority to bring the matter to Cabinet before Christmas to reduce speed limits.
“We've been asking the Minister to prioritise this legislation. The legislation has to be moved to actually reduce the default speed on our speed limits and then our guidance, detailed guidance will go to current councils around the country because actually setting the speed limits around the country is a devolved function of the local authorities.”
Ms O’Donnell said she hoped that local authorities, who were the best people to know local accident black spots, would know what was reasonable in terms of speed and would have the discretion to decide which roads would have lower speed rates.
“I would hope that around the country, our councillors, who are, of course, as interested as we are at national level to actually reduce fatalities and serious injuries, that they will they will be there will honour the spirit of the national legislation, which has decreased speed on all our roads.”
Ms O’Donnell acknowledged there could be pushback, but pointed out that the statistics don’t lie. “Over 70 percent of the fatal crashes are happening on rural roads. And so that's where we need to actually really take action.
“But also we've had 43 pedestrian deaths this year, which means that ordinary men and women and children are being knocked down by cars that are going too fast. And if they were going slower, people would survive those crashes. So reducing the speed in urban and built up areas is extremely important.
"This has proven to have worked in other jurisdictions in Spain, for example, and in London. And it is it is showing a marked decrease in crashes, particularly with pedestrians and cyclists.”
