This article is from page 16 of the 2011-05-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 16 JPG
FOCUSING ON the safety of walkers will form a key point in the road safety campaign in Clare over the coming months.
Clare County Council has put together a campaign as part of its role in the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety. The aim is that there will be no road deaths in the county by 2020.
There were four road deaths in Clare last year, compared with seven in 2009.
So far this year, there has been one road death in the county – 36year-old Limerick woman Aileen O’Brien died in a single-vehicle crash at Hurler’s Cross near Shannon earlier this month.
Clare County Council’s Road Safety Officer Barry Keating said that every effort is being made to ensure road safety is a priority.
“We are concentrating on pedestrians. We are giving out high visibility vests. Since last Wednesday, we have given out 200. We are trying to keep pedestrians safe. So far this year (nationally), there have been 71 fatalities; 19 of whom were pedestrians,” Mr Keating told The Clare People .
“High visibility makes drivers aware. We are all out walking so it is important especially in rural parts where you don’t have the infrastructure; you don’t have footpaths. It gives traffic the chance to slow down,” he added.
The council is focusing on educating children from their early years right through to adulthood, in their efforts to promote road safety.
“We are going into the schools on an ongoing basis. We are trying to encourage the children. Hopefully they will give the vests to their parents and they will wear them,” he said.
“We have been going to the preschools giving them talks and handing out the vests and also to primary and secondary schools,” he added.
“It is an apt time for Clare, given that we had our first fatality on the county’s roads last week. It is time to focus on this,” he said.
“We have ambitions to reduce our fatalities on Clare’s roads to zero by the end of the decade. We have reduced our numbers considerably.
“There were 93 road deaths on Clare’s roads in the last decade. In the last five years, that was reduced – to 41,” said Mr Keating.
As part of the council’s efforts to encourage children to get involved in promoting road safety, the school warden scheme is ongoing. As part of this scheme, young pupils play a role in assuming the role of wardens in the vicinity of their schools.