Ireland
Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, 6 Kildare Street, Dublin The Road Safety Authority, the Health and Safety Authority, An Garda Síochána and the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) have the pleasure of inviting you to a seminar on work-related road safety, to be held in Dublin on 31 January. Registration opens at 8.45. The seminar will start at 9.00, finishing at 13.00 followed by a light lunch. On the agenda will be topics to help Irish employers in their day-to-day fleet and work related […]
The Irish parliament has approved tougher new penalties for drivers caught over the legal BAC limit of 0.5g/l. Under the new rules, drivers with a BAC between 0.5g/l and 0.8g/l will face an automatic three-month driving ban. The previous penalty for that offence was three penalty points, but no ban. The change in the law has faced a tortuous legislative journey after a handful of parliamentarians attempted to delay its adoption. Meanwhile ETSC’s Irish member the Road Safety Authority (RSA) has revealed that more […]
Stricter penalties for drink driving in Ireland are set to come into force after a new law was passed by the lower and upper houses of parliament. The Road Traffic Bill includes provisions for an automatic three-month driving ban for first-time offenders if caught with blood-alcohol levels of between 0.5 g/l and 0.8 g/l. Drivers currently caught at these levels receive three penalty points and no driving ban. The bill had almost reached its final stage in its passage through the lower house of […]
Stricter limits on drink-driving are being blocked in the Irish parliament by a small group of MPs opposed to the changes. The Road Traffic Bill includes provisions for an automatic three-month driving ban for first-time offenders if caught with blood-alcohol levels of between 0.5 g/l and 0.8 g/l. Drivers currently caught at these levels receive three penalty points and no driving ban. The bill had almost reached its final stage in its passage through the lower house of the Irish parliament when a small […]
The European Commission has requested that six Member States fully transpose into national law rules agreed in 2014 on roadworthiness testing for motor vehicles. The rules, made up of three EU Directives, should have been in place in all Member States by 20 May 2017. To date, however, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Romania and Slovakia have not – or only partially – done so. The Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia have not adopted, published and communicated to the Commission measures on the […]
The Irish transport minister Shane Ross has called for tougher penalties for drivers that speed. Responding to the latest road death figures for Ireland, which were lower than the previous year, he told the Irish Times newspaper that speeding should be treated like drink driving, with more penalty points for those that exceed speed limits by a higher degree. In the United Kingdom, between 3 and 6 penalty points can be given for speeding offences. Mr Ross also indicated that he was considering more […]
ETSC has joined calls for a tougher law on drink driving in Ireland. The Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill 2017 is currently working its way through the Irish legislative process but has faced opposition from pub owners and members of parliament representing rural areas. One of the government’s proposed changes is automatic disqualification of drivers found with a blood alcohol level of between 0.5 and 0.8g/l. Currently offenders caught in that range face a €200 fine and three penalty points with only those caught over […]
A number of national surveys across Europe have revealed worrying attitudes to the use of mobile devices while driving. Campaigners are calling for better enforcement, higher penalties, technological solutions and education to raise awareness of the risks. A survey carried out by Ipsos in the Czech Republic last Summer found that 36% of drivers admitted using their phone almost every time they get behind the wheel. In Spain, 25% of drivers have admitted to using their phone behind the wheel, similar to the figure […]
Policymakers in Germany, Ireland and Scotland are being asked to support the wider roll out of 30km/h speed limits, especially in urban areas where cars interact with pedestrians, cyclists and other vulnerable road users. At a high-level event organised by ETSC’s Irish member the Road Safety Authority (RSA) earlier this month, the organisations’s chief executive Moyagh Murdock said despite Dublin’s pioneering rollout of 30km/h limits, the rest of the country was ‘falling behind’ and called for more local authorities to follow the capital’s lead. ETSC’s German member DVR is also backing […]
The European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) has announced the 2017 winners of the PRAISE awards, in recognition of outstanding efforts taken by companies to improve road safety at work. The large company award goes to National Vehicle Distribution (NVD), a family-owned vehicle transportation and storage company in Ireland. The small and medium-sized enterprise award goes to ATF, a Belgian road construction company. Jacobs, one of the world’s largest construction services firms, has been highly commended by the award judges. The winners will be honoured […]
ETSC supports the Irish government’s proposal to strengthen the drink driving law. The negative effect of alcohol use on road safety is undisputed. Driving under the influence of alcohol is responsible for approximately a quarter of all road fatalities in the European Union. Some voices in the public debate in Ireland have questioned the impact of drinking one or two alcoholic drinks before driving. The scientific evidence is unequivocal on this: any amount of alcohol has a negative impact on driving ability. Why do […]
The next version of the standard software included on Apple’s iPhones will include a feature that detects driving and then blocks distracting notifications including calls and messages. The overridable feature, known as ‘Do Not Disturb While Driving’, will operate automatically once the phone’s owner has opted-in to the feature the first time the phone detects driving. Passengers, and indeed drivers who click the passenger button, will be able to override the mode at all times. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) requested […]
The Irish transport minister Shane Ross has criticised pub owners for pressure which has led to delays in the passing of a new drink driving law in the Irish parliament. The new proposals, announced earlier this year, would see drivers caught with a blood alcohol level between the legal limit of 0.5g/l and 0.8g/l receiving an automatic three month ban. Under current laws such drivers receive only penalty points and a fine, with bans only automatically issued for drivers found with higher BAC levels. […]
Ireland’s Road Safety Authority (RSA), an ETSC member, says it is seriously considering making proposals to link speeding fines to income. The announcement follows changes to the structure of speeding fines in the UK that came into force last month. The UK has had income-linked speeding fines for some time, but the levels were increased last month for the most serious offences. Drivers can now be fined up to 175% of their weekly income, for example for driving at 101 mph on the motorway […]
ETSC has launched nominations for this year’s PRAISE awards in recognition of organisations that have made an outstanding commitment to improving work-related road safety. The competition is divided into three separate categories according to the size and type of the applicant organisations: SME (Small-Medium Enterprise), large company and public authority. The winners will be chosen by an independent panel of experts appointed by ETSC. Prioritising road safety can help the bottom line, improve working conditions for staff, and boost customer satisfaction. Winners are invited to a high-profile event in Brussels, which […]
Drivers in England, Scotland and Wales caught using their phones at the wheel within two years of passing their test will have their driving license taken away under a new law that came into force on 1 March. Penalties for other drivers have also been doubled to GBP 200 and six penalty points. Responding to the new British law, the Irish transport minister Shane Ross said he is open to imposing similar measures in Ireland. ETSC’s German member DVR called in January for fines […]
Eight EU transport ministers have called on the European Commission to ‘speed up’ plans to upgrade vehicle safety standards saying road safety should be ‘top priority’. In a letter to the European Commissioner for industry Elżbieta Bieńkowska, the transport ministers of Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg and The Netherlands said ‘ambitious’ new vehicle safety standards are needed ‘to help Member States halve the number of road deaths by 2020’. 26,000 people die on European Union roads annually, with at least 135,000 suffering life-changing […]
France and Ireland are increasing their use of road-side saliva testing technology in a bid to boost enforcement of drug driving. France previously required police to accompany drivers to a clinical blood test if they were suspected of drug driving based on a saliva test. Following a trial to determine the accuracy of roadside testing equipment the blood test will now be replaced by a second saliva test. Both of the samples taken will still need to be verified at a laboratory, but the […]
Plans to cut speed limits to 30 km/h on residential streets throughout Dublin were approved in December. The lower limits will be introduced on a step-by-step basis from March 2017 and will apply on almost all roads in Dublin and its surrounding suburbs. The council’s head of traffic and transport Dick Brady said the overriding principle in relation to a 30km/h default speed limit was road safety: “It’s in the interest of road safety we would be recommending these new speed limits. We are talking about […]
Official drink driving campaigns are increasingly using social media to reach target groups. The UK government’s Think! campaign is using events such as major football games and video game launches to point out to young males what they could miss out on if they have one extra pint. The social media images use messages written on the side of beer glasses to get the message across. The campaign specifically targets young males, as figures show they account for almost two thirds of drink drivers […]
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