4 Young Irish Country lads killed on our roads in the last week

What the hell is going on down the country lads....!! We had a Meath Minor Footballer killed last week... which is terrible enough!

But 2 more Young lads were killed in Donegal (A hot spot for young road fatalities) last night and another young lad wiped out when his car went into a tree! I can't remember the exact location. Terrible stuff, a complete waste of lives.

Whatever country boy-racer attitudes you have to driving is shocking to be honest! Flying around little country roads in the wee hours.... even with the joy riding in Dublin we have one of the best road safety stats in Europe.

I think some serious investment is needed in schools down the country to try and educate some of these young lads before they get near a car! It's their attitude that is wrong…. And it endangers not only their own lives but puts the lives of innocent people at risk.

jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20763 - 26/05/2010 10:30:45    658555

Jimbodub


I fully agree it is a great tragedy and something radical needs to be done to educate and change the behaviour of younger drivers.
From a personal perspective I distantly know the parents of one of the lads who sadly lost his life over the weekend so this brings an even more personal dimension to this event. Over the years I' sure we have all had relations or friends who have perished on our roads. Years ago a childhood best friend of mine lost his life on our roads as have two people that I played football with.

Sadly all of these events arose from similar circumstances. A male driver under 21 years was driving and the car was carrying a number of young male passengers and speed was involved.

I know that over the longer term that proper education should change behaviour, but I feel that something more radical needs to be done in the shorter term. The only solution to this is to introduce draconian legislation that is properly enforced

1. All provisional drivers have to be accompanied by a full licence driver >25, If you break this law you should get a three year driving ban
2. For the first 24 months after passing a test a Car should carry "R" restricted driving plates. All R drivers should have an 80kph speed limit except where limit is lower
for any speeding offence whilst on R plates the offence should be treble ie 6 penalty points. For any offence >20 kph over the speed limit the driver should get a 12 month ban.

Sounds harsh, I'm not denying anyones right to a car but until you are 21 you should be forced to be cautious

Omar.d (Cavan) - Posts: 1141 - 26/05/2010 11:09:31    658602

Totally agree jimbo,lot of lads i know drive around little crappy roads with twists and turns at ridiculous sppeds and sometimes with a feed of beer in them.Waste of time talking to them too,these lads were in school with me and we had a number of car safety workshops and so forth to realise the risks but for some reasons they're still idiots!

beer baron (Cavan) - Posts: 3916 - 26/05/2010 11:13:31    658607

mayo county council have done huge work educating young people and had schools attend raod safety days where they met with victims and shown actual car wrecks. only lastnight i saw boy racers driving mad up and down the road. they also destroyed a soccer pitch in the county last week doing wheelies. the sitution in donegal is very sad and worrying.

i dont like to sterotype but donrgal and border counties seem to have a reputition for boy racers as many in my area seem to get their cars from up there. can any1 explain why this is. i know they dont all go mad on the road, but it seems most do.

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11762 - 26/05/2010 11:32:42    658627

Omar.d
County: Cavan
Posts: 14


Good post... I'd agree with many of youR points, it's very sad that you had a link to the lads killed over the weekend.

I would be in favour of a radical approach to be honest... I feel that young drivers in the country have sadly and tragically earned themselves such restrictions!

jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20763 - 26/05/2010 11:40:35    658638

beer baron
County: Cavan
Posts: 3106

658607 Totally agree jimbo,lot of lads i know drive around little crappy roads with twists and turns at ridiculous sppeds and sometimes with a feed of beer in them.Waste of time talking to them too,these lads were in school with me and we had a number of car safety workshops and so forth to realise the risks but for some reasons they're still idiots!

Well that's the word for them Baron... Idiots. Idiots that put the lives of innocent people at risk...

jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20763 - 26/05/2010 11:42:03    658642

Good idea Jim but sure all the money in the country for this is tied up trying to educate the young people in Dublin not to take drugs

vice99 (Donegal) - Posts: 1054 - 26/05/2010 12:02:03    658673

vice99
County: Donegal
Posts: 197

658673 Good idea Jim but sure all the money in the country for this is tied up trying to educate the young people in Dublin not to take drugs

I dont know about that... Drugs are wide spread in this country.

jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20763 - 26/05/2010 12:11:44    658687

The roads in Donegal are rubbish which is a huge contributing factor. The N56, for example, which is the one of the main roads in Donegal, has a speed limit of 100km/h. Ya cant even get up to 100km/h on it. I've been working up in Donegal 2/3days a week for the last 2years and find it mind boggling how that road is even classed as an national road. Its crazy. Dont get me started on the regional roads up there.

Adler (Monaghan) - Posts: 754 - 26/05/2010 12:18:07    658702

Its very sad when young people killed on what can be avoidable accidents, just last year there was a terrible accident here in Tyrone were a few young lads were killed just a mile or so from there home and only the other day a wee girl killed on a school bus travelling home, it was her 16th birthday.

DynamoDooher (Tyrone) - Posts: 423 - 26/05/2010 12:18:42    658705

Well so are road fatalities Jim. Not just in Donegal. And I wouldn't call Donegal a hotspot you should actually look into that. There are about 4 or 5 worse counties than Donegal for road fatalities. You might wantto look into that in future.

vice99 (Donegal) - Posts: 1054 - 26/05/2010 12:32:14    658727

to be honest, if i was vice99 i would have replied the same way Jim. I understand what your saying in your first post but you seemed to tar them all with the one brush. I dont think anyone will disagree with what your saying but there are road fatalities everywhere these days.the only difference is that in dublin city and surrounding area is there are speed humps everywhere and areas where gaurds are on duty everywhere. and well lit up areas help too.

Rhodejim (Offaly) - Posts: 2888 - 26/05/2010 12:41:29    658746

vice99
County: Donegal
Posts: 198

658727 Well so are road fatalities Jim. Not just in Donegal. And I wouldn't call Donegal a hotspot you should actually look into that. There are about 4 or 5 worse counties than Donegal for road fatalities. You might wantto look into that in future.

I suggets that you look into it. I have already...

jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20763 - 26/05/2010 12:50:58    658760

26/05/2010 12:50:58
jimbodub
County: Dublin
Posts: 5591

658760 vice99
County: Donegal
Posts: 198

658727 Well so are road fatalities Jim. Not just in Donegal. And I wouldn't call Donegal a hotspot you should actually look into that. There are about 4 or 5 worse counties than Donegal for road fatalities. You might wantto look into that in future.
I suggets that you look into it. I have already...
________________
I haven't researched this but sadly I feel you are probably right if its looked at in terms of fatalities per head of population
In particular over the past 4/5 years I can recall a number of particularly tragic incidents involving multiple fatalities in the eastern part of the county - Moville/Buncrana etc

Omar.d (Cavan) - Posts: 1141 - 26/05/2010 12:57:29    658773

Agree with Rhodejim and Vice99, the points are relevant but the unnecessary use of "country" in the the title and post is divisive and could possible be viewed as distancing yourself from the problem

Breffni40 (Cavan) - Posts: 12490 - 26/05/2010 13:00:53    658779

Also, while it is not the case in every similar tragic accident, a lot of these young lads are marginalised and have an element of a death wish, so any amount of road safety education will be meaningless to them. I would link a lot of these deaths to the suicide rates among similar age groups.

Breffni40 (Cavan) - Posts: 12490 - 26/05/2010 13:07:37    658792

vice99
County: Donegal
Posts: 198

658727 Well so are road fatalities Jim. Not just in Donegal. And I wouldn't call Donegal a hotspot you should actually look into that. There are about 4 or 5 worse counties than Donegal for road fatalities. You might wantto look into that in future.
26/05/2010 12:41:29
Rhodejim
County: Offaly
Posts: 1912

658746 to be honest, if i was vice99 i would have replied the same way Jim. I understand what your saying in your first post but you seemed to tar them all with the one brush. I dont think anyone will disagree with what your saying but there are road fatalities everywhere these days….the only difference is that in dublin city and surrounding area is there are speed humps everywhere and areas where gaurds are on duty everywhere. and well lit up areas help too.

It's not a Dublin v Donegal thing here lads, I find it incredibly childish that you would turn it into one to be honest... At the end of the day, I'm stating my opinion which I have based on recent events over the last couple of years, and many of the incidents took place in Donegal. Didn't one town recently lose about 5-6 young people to road accidents within a number of months of each other in Donegal?

Now let me just put this as easily as I can - I meant no offence to the people of Donegal. From my reading Donegal has a lot of young road fatalities over the past couple of years. This is what this thread has been based on, "Young Fatalities" not nationwide road deaths as indicated by vice99. That is what I based my comment on... There was also a Guard crushed to death by a Young Donegal man who had many traffic violations against his name.

Take of that what you will...

jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20763 - 26/05/2010 13:10:28    658797

Omar.d
County: Cavan
Posts: 18

It's not about being right or wrong on this one.... I've only based my comments on what I've read. I wish to God that it wasnt the case... but thats the way it is.

jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20763 - 26/05/2010 13:13:38    658805

Sure it's like most other things up here. We're neglected in a lot of things really. No rail links, poor roads, relative lack of industry. There is definitely a boy-races culture up here though, seems to be a kind of a northern thing. Young lads barely able to order a pint can be seen flying about the place in wee noisy cars!

Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 9997 - 26/05/2010 13:16:18    658808

This is from 2008



http://www.inishowennews.com/08RoadMessage.htm



This is from 2010 - Great news - Until the sad events of last night



http://www.derryjournal.com/inishowen/Decrease-in-Donegal-road-deaths.4052731.jp

jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20763 - 26/05/2010 13:37:17    658832