Speech by Chairperson Liz O’Donnell, Road Safety Authority to the
Annual Conference of Addiction Counsellors of Ireland, The Ardilaun Hotel in Salthill, Galway, Friday 17th April, 2015
Chairman, Board Members, ladies and gentlemen, good evening.
Thank you for inviting me to address you all on the topic of road safety.
There are many synergies between the work of the RSA and the Addiction Councillors of Ireland.
Both our organisations have to deal with the consequences of people’s addiction to alcohol or drugs, whether prescription, over the counter orillicit. And of course there is also the new and growing threat on our roads posed by mobile phone use and the related distraction while driving.
But before I delve into that, I think I should begin by firstly talking about the RSA itself. Most people are probably familiar with the organisation from our radio and TV ads and overall advocacy. However I wonder how many people are actually awareof the breath of what we do.
The Road Safety Authority is still a very young organisation, it was established on the 1st September 2006, and in this short time it has achieved a great deal.
The aim of the Road Safety Authority is straightforward - it is to save lives and prevent injuries by reducing the number and severity of collisions on the roads.
The impact of deaths and injuries is felt in every corner of the country by every member of society. Each fatality and serious crash has a life-altering impact on families and individuals. The unexpected loss of a loved one in a car crash is a massive tragedy, with long-term emotional and financial loss for families.
Fortunately, in recent years Ireland’s road safety record has improved measurably thanks to the work of the many agencies and individuals working in a strategic cross cutting way.
And that’s a very important point, Ireland’s road safety success didn’t happen by accident, is built on a solid strategy. The RSA has overall responsibility for the development of thisRoad Safety Strategy.
Significant progress has been achieved since Ireland first began to pursue this strategic approach to road safety in 1998. It is based on the three ‘E’s of road safety, namely, Education, Enforcement and Engineering.
Roads deaths are down by 65.7% (1997-2012) and Ireland is now the six safest country in the European Union for road collision fatalities per million population.
This achievement should be seen against a 66% increase in the number of cars using the road. When the costs of fatalities and serious injuries are analysed, the financial benefits to society are conservatively estimated to be in excess of €1bn per annum.
The current and fourth Road Safety Strategy runs from 2013 to 2020 and sets a specific target to reduce the number of road deaths to 124 a year from a base line of 162 in 2012 and serious injuries to 330 per year from 485 in 2012. This drop is necessary to close the gap between Ireland and the best performing countries such as the UK, Netherlands, Sweden and Australia.
The Strategy includes 144 specific actions to reduce road fatalities, and each action identifies the State body responsible for implementing that action,and when it is to be delivered.
The strategy focuses on road safety as a responsibility shared and managed by everyone, from national and local Government, private business and road-users, working together at every level – national, regional, local and community.
In 2005 the year before the RSA was set up 365 people died on our roads, that’s one life lost every day. Last year we lost 196 lives on the roads.Regrettably, since 2013, road deaths have begun to rise once more, a very worrying development and an indication to me as Chair of the RSA that we cannot sit on our laurels. The road safety message must be sustained to achieve reductions in fatalities.
In addition to our role in developing and reporting to the Minister for Transport on the progress of the Strategy, the RSA has day to day responsibility for a range of other functions including Road Safety Education, Road Safety Research, Driver Licensing which includes the delivery of the National Driver Licensing Service, the Driver Theory and practical Driving Test, Regulation of the Driving Instructor Sector, Mandatory Vocational Training for professional drivers, Road Haulage Enforcement, the Roadworthiness testing of Goods and Passenger Vehicle Testing and oversight of the delivery of the NCT.
Quite a mouthful I know, and a big responsibility too. Part of my role is to ensure the organisation can embrace all this expanding remit and is fit for purpose.
But the creation of the Road Safety Authority has allowed us for the first time to maximise synergy across the most important road safety functions in the country.
The reduction in fatalities that have been achieved to date have come about through a number of robust actions as well as significant legislative changes, including the following:
- The introduction of Mandatory Alcohol Testing Checkpoints
- The reduction in the Blood Alcohol Concentration levels
- The introduction of the Safety Camera Network
- The Penalty Points system
- The development and upgrading of much of the major Interurban road network
- Comprehensive community and school based education programmes and high profile media awareness programmes
- Vehicle testing and increased frequency of testing for older vehicles.
The main causes of crashes on our roads are down to human behaviour typically as a result of speeding, impaired driving - whether through drink, drugs or tiredness - non-seatbelt wearing and distracted driving.
So, given our shared interests, I’d like to focus on the problems of driving under the influence of alcohol, drugs and the new scourge on our roads, distracted driving as a result of our growing dependency on mobile devices.
While various hard hitting measures like Mandatory Alcohol Testing, the lowering of the drink drive limit and the introduction of tougher penalties, have had a profound effect on the attitudes and behaviour of the majority of people in this country, we shouldn’t for a second think that the problem has been eradicated from our society. Far from it. Last week alone 152 drivers were arrested on suspicion of drink driving.
While the level of alcohol related crashes has reduced from 40% in the early part of the last decade, to around 15% at present, people are still choosing to get behind the wheel of the car,after drinking alcohol and driving.
There are clearly individuals who choose to ignore road safety appeals not to drink and drive,and are not put off by the threat of enforcement. Within this group there are those at one end of the scale, who are simply “taking a chance”to drink and drive, to those on the other end of the scale, for whom drinking and driving is the symptom of a wider chronic problem they have with alcohol abuse.
But what can we do to deal with these attitudes and behaviour? All the low hanging fruit so to speak – such as Mandatory Testing and lower drink drive limits - have been introduced. What can we do now to move the dial further and reduce the role that alcohol plays in road crashes?
The road safety strategy identifies a potential approach to deal with those who are convicted of drink driving offences.
This could involve a tiered approach to addressing the problem by providing alternative sentencing options in the courts for those convicted of drunk driving.
This could involve the provision of targeted education through driving rehabilitative coursesfor those who made a big mistake in drink driving.
But for those with a more complex relationship with alcohol and who would be deemed as high risk repeat offenders, a different approach is needed. In addition to the education courses, measures may be needed to ‘police’ such high risk drivers when they get into the car, to prevent them from drink driving. Such a measure, could include the fitment of Alco-lock devices in the vehicle.And this is something we are investigating, looking in particular at how it was worked in other countries.
It’s important to state that such interventions are not a form of treatment or designed to replace it. They are educational in nature and aimed at changing the attitudes and behaviour of those involved in drink driving.
They are voluntary and would be paid for by the offenders themselves. If completed satisfactorily, theycould contribute to a reduction in the period of driving disqualification.
A system involving education courses only has been in place in Northern Ireland, initially on a pilot basis in 1998, but permanently across the province since 2004. Research into the effectiveness of the scheme has shown that the likelihood of re-offending is 1.6 times higher if the offender did not complete a drink drive rehabilitation course.
The RSA is in the process of finalising a report which will make recommendations to the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, on the implementation of a drink drive rehabilitation programme here.
Looking at your website I am interested in the topics that you have addressed in the recent past.
One topic which I was really delighted to see and which I had intended to raise, is what I have called the modern scourge of mobile phone dependency.
I’m not sure if you, as an organisation, would class the way it has taken over some people’s lives as an addition,or if it is appropriate to raise it in the same context as drink or drug addiction.
I would be really interested to hear your views on this in more detail. But for myself, I certainly believe that ‘nomophobia’ or the fear of being out of mobile contact, is as a result of our over dependence on our devices. It can certainly cause the same devastating consequences on the road as drink or drug driving.
I understand ‘nomophobia’ was first coined in a 2010 study, by the UK Post Office, into the anxieties suffered by mobile phone users. The study found that over half the UK population suffers from it. In the US, about two in three people, sleep with or next to their smart phones.
According to a recent RED C poll here, three out of five Irish people are nomophobic.
So what’s nomophobia got to do with road safety? Well, nomophobia clouds every driver’s better judgment once inside their car. Otherwise responsible drivers feel they can justify their compulsion to use their mobile while driving.
Mobiles have a really positive role to play in modern life. They can be lifesavers. At the very least they are a way for us all to be more connected.
The down side is just how dependent we’ve all become on our mobiles. Something we really have failed to recognise. People don’t even switch off their phones any more. We suffer separation anxiety if we misplace or lose it. I would argue that needing something to this extent, to stop the rising panic and feel normal, is an addiction.
Some experts have likened the mobile to the world’s smallest slot machine. The feelings associated with “using a mobile” are akin to those of “gambling” because there is a high expectation of a quick response or win but no guarantee. Both light up the brain’s reward centre by releasing dopamine.
Despite this, there are times when we all recognise that mobile use is not appropriate – when you’re having a meal in a restaurant, when you’re on a date, when you’re interviewing someone or listening to someone’s presentation at work to give just a few examples. In these circumstances, mobile use is not socially acceptable but what’s the worst that could happen? Somebody’s nose is a bit out of joint or you come across as a tad rude?
So isn’t it ironic that when it comes to using our mobiles in cars, some of us are totally accepting of ourselves and others who “use”. We know that it’s dangerous in theory but it’s become so normalised as part of our busy lifestyles that we’ve come to view spending time in the car as “dead time” that a mobile device can justifiably be put to more productive use.
A red traffic light or a traffic jam is an ideal opportunity to text or check social media updates and we can’t resist continuing once the car has started to move again. Why? Because one of the biggest symptoms of addiction is that we lose track of time and space when we’re on devices, which affect the brain the way drugs do.
We’re so busy catching up and not missing out that we’ve forgotten how complex a task it is to drive a car safely with others on the road. Driving feels familiar and therefore safe.
We excuse ourselves on the basis that we’re more experienced drivers or better multi-taskers than others. We think that hands free kits are the answer when there is no evidence to say that they’re any safer.
It seems that we are using devices in the car a lot more than drivers in the UK. Four times as much in fact. Just under 2% of UK drivers are observed using the mobile while driving compared to 8% in Ireland. It has reached near epidemic levels here.
International studies have shown that using a mobile while driving is as dangerous as drink driving. It’s also similar in another way too. It doesn’t happen by accident it happens by choice.
Some will argue that the penalties that apply for drink driving should also apply to using a mobile phone behind the wheel? But to reach that point, society will have to buy in to the notion that both behaviours are equally dangerous and deplorable. We are not there yet. Hefty fines and penalty points would go a long way to get this enforcement message across.
One thing I am clear on is that you, as Addiction Counsellors have a vital role to play in addressing these issues. While the RSA and other stakeholders focus on the education and persuasion of those high risk road users, the work of Addiction Counsellors in the ‘treatment’ and rehabilitation these individuals is of critical importance.
You may have noticed our current ads on the dangers of driving while using drugs. “If you drive on drugs you are out of your mind”. They are powerful and overdue in my view given the incidence of drug impairment in road crashes.
The Medical Bureau of Road Safety, which is the state body for the testing of all blood and urine specimens taken by the Gardai, tells us that approximately one in ten drivers killed in crashes has a positive toxicology for a drug or drugs.
Tackling this problem is more complicated than drink driving.
Up to now, the research is that many drug drivers see little risk of apprehension. They can actually delude themselves to be better drivers while under the influence of drugs and imagine themselves at low risk of collision. They also overestimate their driving competence and demonstrate little understanding of the effects of drugs on their driving.
A two-step process has been identified to tackle the problem. The first, is the introduction of a field impairment test at the roadside. It’s a bit like the ‘walk the line’ sobriety tests that we often see depicted in the movies. It was introduced back in December of last year and this new Roadside Impairment Test, provides An Garda Síochána additional powers to test drivers whom they suspect of driving under the influence of drugs.
As part of this test, drivers are required to undergo five impairment tests; a Pupil Dilation Test, Modified Romberg Balance Test, Walk and Turn Test, One Leg Stand and lastly a Finger to Nose Test. For our part the RSA has launched a major public awareness campaign to let the public know that the Gardai have this new power to enforce drug driving laws.
The second step will see the introduction of roadside chemical testing, which is modelled on the successful mandatory alcohol screening. This is being legislated for at the moment and we hope to see it in use, testing for certain key drugs, like cannabis, cocaine, opiates and benzodiazepines which are the most prevalent in drugged drivers, by the end of this year.
I have no doubt that with such additional powers more drug drivers will be apprehended by the Gardai. The fear of being arrested and disqualified from driving will force these drivers to reconsider such dangerous behaviour
I would like to acknowledge the work that you do and how it has also fed into the objective of making the roads safer for everyone. You all share in the achievements that have been made in reducing the level of death and injury on the road.
I would certainly like to see both our organisations working more closely to achieve our common goal. That is, to raise public awareness of the dangers of Alcohol and Drug abuse and indeed the misuse of mobile phones while driving,all of which continue to be significant factors in road trauma.
Thank you.
1