Road Safety and What We Can't Do About It.

So we're all aghast at the carnage on the roads, are we?

Naturally, my thoughts are with the families of the lads who were killed last weekend in Monaghan. There's no consolation in me sitting here, blethering about how fucking daft they were to be driving dangerously in the first place, or whatever. It's true, but what good's my saying it going to do? The young men who spend their nights driving around country roads like maniacs are going to continue doing it no matter what sanctions we threaten them with and no matter how much hand-wringing we do on behalf of bereaved families miles away.

I know this beacause these Boy Racer lads tend to be around the same age as me; I hang out with them, I went to the same school as them, we drink together.

Here's a little story. It's not a pleasant one.

Look here at the map of fatal accidents on roaddeaths.ie. See just below Galway City there? There's a little tombstone noting a fatality, all on its ownsome on the road to Ennis. That's where I come from.

Now as I gather, the map only dates from early 2006, so it's unlikely to be bringing to your attention the particular accident I thought of when I saw that little tombstone. I'm thinking of Marcus Scully and Cathal Geoghegan, both eighteen, who were killed on the road just outside the town in March 2005. Typical, really. Two local young fellas, driving badly, dead because of it.

Another local young fella, a lad who knew both Cathal and Marcus, was following their car at the time, and so saw the crash and saw his peers die in front of him. I heard afterwards he was very shaken; there were reports going around the town of how he had heard the screams of one of the lads before he died, how after hearing something so horrible he would never be the same again.

Yet he's still driving around the place like a maniac. Here's someone who saw what dangerous driving could do; here's someone who you think would have absorbed the most potent and powerful lesson possible on the importance of taking it easy on the road. The little fucker hasn't slowed down, though. He saw two kids die in front of him and he's completely forgotten it.

So really; does anyone think that strict sanctions is going to stop these young guys driving dangerously? These kids can't see beyond the moment; promising they'll be punished tomorrow isn't going to make a blind bit of difference to them.

So I don't have any suggestions on how to slow down the rate of road deaths in this country. None directly relating to driving, anyway.

But here's a thing: why are these guys driving around badly in the first place? Is it that they haven't received adequate driving lessons or enough stern warnings? Pah. It's because they have nothing else to do.

Now, it's fairly obvious that I don't come from the most resource-generous area in the country, being that the blog is called Arse End Of Ireland and all that. In my town there's no cinema. No bowling alley. No arcade. No swimming pool. No Go-Kart track. The only thing we have to do is drink or get a big powerful car and go racing around the country roads, fantasising about Top Gear and listening to hard house; that's why you can safely break our young male population into two catagories: alcoholics and boy racers. Parents are terrified that their young pup will join the ranks of the former, so they'll facilitate his getting the tools to fit in with the latter. And when you've really, really got nothing else to do but drive and nothing to waste your money on but petrol... well, where are you going to get your kicks? It's Talledega Nights, I'ma Gonna Blow Your Tires Off.

Funny, really. In the last few days we've seen the newspapers give equal coverage to the road safety issue and the growing number of drug seizures in the country. I'm sure there's more than one parent out there who hears about the drug seizures and thanks God that The State is finally doing something about the Problem of Dhrugs, dhrugs being those things that cause all the misery in the world.

Dhrugs (at least in the recreational sense) being those things that allieviate boredom in a lot of young thrillseekers out there. A bit like powerful cars. And really; isn't being young about pushing boundaries and getting your kicks?

Compare the combined deaths from such common recreational drugs as Cannabis, Ecstasy and, ah, fuck it, we'll throw in Cocaine too, and the deaths from road accidents in the last year amongst our young adult population. Yeah? Now throw in various accidents too; the not-so-serious ones, the ones you'll lose a leg in but survive. Hmm. Talk about not adding up. Yet parents are a lot more likely to buy young Shane a Civic for his eighteenth than not lose the head over getting the smell of dope off him.

So here we come to the end of this blog post. It hasn't much been entertaining, has it? Oh, you're looking for a point to round it off? Well fuck me if I don't have one. I can't stop young guys blistering the tar on the country roads til all hours of the morning (very interesting night-time soundtrack we have here in the arse end). There's nothing else for them to do, is there? And if Mammy and Daddy think that their driving, looking for something to overtake every night of the week is an acceptable, clean and safe past-time; well, who am I to argue?