Top cop supports speed awareness courses

The head of An Garda Síochána says he is “supportive” of proposals being examined by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) on the introduction of speed awareness education classes for people caught speeding first time.

In the UK, where the initiative has been in place for a number of years, motorists can sometimes avoid a fine and points on their licence by attending a lesson about the dangers of speeding.

Courses tend to last four to five hours, with the aim to encourage drivers to alter their attitudes towards excessive or inappropriate speed.

“Those who speed obviously create obvious dangers for themselves and other road users,” said Commissioner Drew Harris. “Not going down the route every time of penalty points, but an education programme has been shown in other jurisdictions to be very effective.”

Chief Constable Boutcher acknowledged the effectiveness of the scheme. “You’ve seen on the island of Ireland in the past year, certainly in Northern Ireland, we’ve had 59 road deaths. So anything we can do to firstly educate around why these awful deaths are occurring, life changing injuries,” said the northern policing chief. He suggested a lot of serious road incidents involve young drivers, “inexperienced, often on country roads”, and the challenge in that respect is to “make sure they understand the reality of having control of a car and what it can do, not just for them but their friends as well”.

He added: “Any endorsement, any penalty points, and I’m a huge fan of the speed awareness course because it just allows people to take a beat, listen to what it means if you speed, the implications of it; so that is all to the good.”

Chief Constable Boutcher noted that he and Comm Harris had already been speaking about how to make Irish roads safer both sides of the Border.

“We’re very alive to the issues around the dangers on our roads at the moment, and especially at Christmas time. Please, please, please drive carefully at Christmas time,” he urged.