Action must be taken on road safety in Province
RADICAL action needs to be taken to improve the appalling road safety record in Northern Ireland.
Today another family will suffer the agonising grief of burying loved ones who died on our roads.
It will be a heartbreaking day for the family and friends of 16 year old Darren McNicholl and his 20 year old sister Natasha, who were killed near Moneymore on Tuesday.
The village of the Loup, near Magherafelt, has been numbed with shock at the loss of the two young people who should have had long and successful lives in front of them.
Our hearts go out to the family and the community as they struggle to cope with the tragedy.
The funeral takes place on the day a survey has revealed that Northern Ireland has the highest rate for fatal road crashes in the United Kingdom.
The report by the Institute of Advanced Motorists found that although we have the smallest number of cars in use, the death rate is 6.4 per cent per 100,000 population.
This compares to a death rate of 5.5 in Scotland, 5.4 in Wales and 4.9 in England.
The stark message from the Institute is that people are more likely to die on the roads of Northern Ireland than anywhere else in the United Kingdom.
Millions of pounds are spent on traffic policing, road safety education and advertising but people are still dying on the roads.
We all have a responsibility to improve the standard of driving on our roads and eliminate as many accidents as possible. It does not matter whether we are drivers, pedestrians or even passengers, there must be something we can do to make our roads safer.
The police need to think long and hard about the way they enforce traffic regulations and the various agencies with responsibilities for road safety need to take a fresh look at the way they work and how that effort is coordinated.
Whatever has been done in the past has only had a limited success. Now is the time to start anew.
Collectively we should all hang our heads in shame but we also have a moral duty to do something about it and as quickly as possible.
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Weather for Belfast
Tuesday 14 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 6 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
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Temperature: 6 C to 10 C
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Wind direction: North west
