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Irish Independent
3 days ago
- Irish Independent
‘People don't get charged with dangerous use of a gun': campaigner calls for ‘vehicular manslaughter' to replace dangerous driving offences
Leo Lieghio, a spokesperson with the Irish Road Victims Association, lost his 16-year-old daughter Marsia almost 20 years ago in Clondalkin in Dublin. The driver who knocked her down failed to remain at the scene. Several days later in Belfast, the same driver knocked down an 18-year-old pedestrian who was seriously injured. She served a prison term of 10 months for having no road tax and insurance in relation to Marsia's death. She died several years later. After a spate of deaths on Irish roads in recent weeks, Mr Lieghio is calling for tougher laws and sentencing to be imposed. 'Careless and dangerous driving offences need to be replaced by a crime such as vehicular manslaughter. A person who uses a knife or a gun to shoot someone is never charged with careless or dangerous use of a knife or gun — it's manslaughter or murder. The same should be applied to driving offences in some cases,' said Mr Lieghio. He said tougher sanctions promised several years ago need to be introduced now. 'There are no such things as accidents as 99.9pc of them are avoidable. They are collisions. I have to campaign for tougher road laws and to educate young drivers, but I shouldn't have to.' So far this year 100 people have died on Irish roads, according to the latest garda statistics, with a rise in the number of vulnerable road users being killed. This year so far, 38 drivers, nine passengers, 23 pedestrians, 18 motorcyclists, one pillion passenger, nine cyclists and two e-scooter riders have been killed. Pedestrians accounted for nearly a quarter of road deaths so far this year. While motorcycles represent just 1.4pc of all licensed Irish road vehicles, motorcyclist fatalities made up 18pc of deaths. Overall, road users aged 16 to 25 years have represented the largest proportion of fatalities (26pc) and serious injuries (22pc) in recent years. ADVERTISEMENT Learn more As long as people have cars that can be driven at fast speeds, people will speed The stricter rules Mr Lieghio would like to see date back to when Shane Ross was Minister for Transport. Mr Ross received cabinet approval for graduated speeding penalties but they were never introduced. Ministers agreed to the proposals, which seek to impose more severe sanctions on motorists who have exceeded the speed limit by greater amounts. Mr Lieghio said questions have to be asked as to why these penalties were never enacted. 'Our various governments and road safety organisations need to act now and introduce stricter legislation instead of putting it off. All of the road deaths are preventable and speed limits need to be lowered also, down to 30kmh where appropriate. As long as people have cars that can be driven at fast speeds, people will speed,' he said. 'Car manufacturers should not be able to produce cars that are capable of going excess speeds, that's where road safety should first start. 'Alcohol interlocking systems on cars should be introduced here as they are in other EU countries. There are also more advanced drug-driving test methods available which should be here. GPS monitoring is also an option on cars along with scrapping the overriding option on engine speed limiters.' What is also needed is more respect by every road user for one another Mr Lieghio, a native of Dublin who lives in Baltinglass, Co Wicklow, said for his family life will 'never be the same again'. 'It devastated us all and the years since have been tough.' He now visits secondary schools and third-level institutions as part of the Axa Roadsafe Roadshow in conjunction with local authorities nationwide. 'I speak about what happened to Marsia and how taking a car safety pledge is so important. Women seem to listen more and now hopefully we are getting through to young men. 'What is also needed is more respect by every road user for one another, more education and dedicated broadcast and print campaigns dedicated to pedestrians, motorcyclists and cyclists. 'But there seems to be inaction by the authorities here, especially learning from other countries and how they deal with road deaths. 'There was a world conference on road safety in Morocco last year and not one government minister or related body attended except ourselves. So where is the commitment from regulator bodies to tackle road deaths?' In a statement to the Sunday Independent, the Road Safety Authority said it is 'deeply concerned by the continuing loss of life on our roads, particularly among our most vulnerable road users. Every life lost represents a family, a community, and an irreplaceable human tragedy.' It added that the number of pedestrians killed is 'troubling and highlights the increased risks facing those on foot. These fatalities span all age groups, underlining that this is not a risk confined to any one demographic'. The Department of Transport was also contacted for comment.
Irish Independent
01-08-2025
- Irish Independent
Grieving father's disgust as report finds some gardaí ‘openly hostile' to roads policing duties
Vice president of the Irish Road Victims Association, Leo Lieghio, whose 16-year-old daughter Marsia died in 2005, said the findings reveal a 'culture of silence' amongst garda management. "The report shows that not only did the gardaí fail at their basic duties, speed checks, road testing and drug driving, but they also didn't care,' Mr Lieghio told RTÉ Radio One's Morning Ireland. "They didn't even care that they were being watched or monitored. That's a complete betrayal of trust. "And worse still, a culture of silence and fear among the management. The idea that supervisors were too afraid and unwilling to step in.' Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said on Thursday that he received anonymous information before commissioning an examination of how roads policing operations were being carried out. Mr Lieghio is requesting a meeting with Commissioner Harris and Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan in a quest for 'concrete assurances' that the failings will not be repeated. "The families of road victims, every innocent person placed at risk by the failures of the Garda and their leadership, deserve the truth, a sincere apology and concrete assurances that this is never going to happen again.' He expressed hope that incoming Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly, who officially assumes his role from 1 September, can make change happen. However, Mr Lieghio said he things the system until now cares little for the protection of future road crash victims. "Even after the crash, even after the funeral, the system still doesn't care enough to protect the next child, the next mother, the next brother,' he said. The findings of that examination were described as 'shocking' by Commissioner Harris and the chair of the Policing and Community Safety Authority, Elaine Byrne. 'Openly hostile' She said the authority had received the report in June and that it had found some members showed a 'blatant disregard' for their job, even while they knew their actions were being directly reviewed. 'They were openly hostile to doing their job,' she said, in what she described as a 'wake-up call' for An Garda Síochána. 'There are members within roads policing who seem very much uninterested in their job, and this is something that we are concerned about in terms of performance of individual guards, and it's something that the previous authority have looked upon, and the current authority would have concerns about the absence of performance management within the gardaí,' she said after a meeting of the authority. She said the authority had also been 'shocked' by a fear of carrying out performance management among garda managers. She urged the Garda Commissioner to publish the report in due course, which Mr Harris said he would do soon. 'What I'll undertake to do is, we just do one final read through the report. I just want to be sure nobody's identifiable, and then we can issue the report,' he said. 'It did arise from anonymous correspondence that I received, obviously from a roads policing member and although anonymous, it had certainly a ring of authenticity about that.' He said he then asked for an examination of the work done by roads policing members and a working group is now going through various recommendations. 'It's sobering to say the least in terms of its conclusions' 'The reason this is important is there's been a lot of focus on roads policing numbers, but also obviously, then the impact of enforcement on road deaths and seriously injured. 'It's sobering to say the least in terms of its conclusions.' The Garda Representative Association (GRA) declined to comment. Seán Canney, Minister of State with responsibility for Transport, said he was surprised to hear of the extent of the failings highlighted by the report. "From my perspective and from the perspective of the general public I need to ensure that the road safety action plan for the next three years which have put in place will be a plan that will be acted upon,' he said. Mr Canney, who said he had not yet read the report, said laws must be enforced if the roads are to be truly safer. "There's no point in us bringing in laws reducing speed limits and doing all of this kind of thing if we don't have a functional enforcement section within the Gardaí,' he also told Morning Ireland on Friday. It comes as gardaí and the Road Safety Authority (RSA) made a road safety appeal ahead of the August bank holiday weekend. A half-yearly report has been published by the RSA analysing road deaths from the beginning of this year to July 27. The findings based on an analysis of 91 road deaths show the number of people killed aged 46 to 65 has reached a six-year high. By contrast, the number of young people aged 25 and under has fallen year-on-year. A total of 27pc of road deaths occurred between the hours of 12pm and 4pm, while 26pc occurred between 8pm and 4am when when traffic tends to be lower. The greatest number of deaths were seen from Friday through Monday, while more than half (56pc) of road deaths occurred on 80kmh and 100kmh roads. A total of 95 people have died on roads this year to date, including 35 drivers, 22 pedestrians, 17 motorcyclists, eight cyclists, eight passengers and one e-scooter rider. There has been an increase in deaths among vulnerable road users including pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.
