Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
LAST UPDATE | 18 Nov 2018
THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE of the Road Safety Authority has said it will be essential for gardaí to be able to have mobile access to a national database that will inform officers if a driver is unqualified or has a suspended licence at the roadside.
Moyagh Murdock said that having to wait to return to the garda station or asking someone to produce their licence at a station is “not an effective or an intelligent way to police the roads”, and that equipping gardaí with this “real time” facility would help to police the roads more effectively.
She was speaking to RTÉ’s This Week programme as today marks World Day of Remembrance for Road Victims.
A number of events have taken place around the country to mark the day, and further information can be found here.
So far in Ireland this year, 130 people have died on the roads meaning that since records began in 1959, a total of 24,255 people have died on Irish roads.
In 2017, 158 people died in road traffic incidents. Despite close to one person dying every two days on the roads last year, 2017 was the safest year on Ireland’s roads since 1959.
Murdock said it was a fact that many on the roads were unqualified, had a suspended licence or have never had any kind of training on the roads.
“People who engage in that type of behaviour are generally non-compliant in all other areas of road safety,” he said.
Gardaí will soon get the ability to check if a driver has insurance on the go using a mobile device, but this ability to verify information should stretch beyond that according to the RSA chief executive.
“The challenge now is to get the commitment and resourcing to roll out hand-held devices to the full traffic core and gardaí in general,” she said. “All of them need that to be effective.”
In a statement marking the day, Minister for Transport Shane Ross said that it’s “quite frankly unforgivable” to think it’s worth taking a risk and driving while over the legal alcohol limit.
While the overall trends are going downwards, Ross said that the numbers killed on the roads is still unacceptable.
“Year after year, the same messages go out,” he said. “And yet every year people are killed or maimed on our roads.”
Recent figures show 50,000 drivers were caught on their phones, while new changes to drink driving laws have introduced a zero tolerance policy on those caught over the limit who are now banned from driving for three months.
Ross said: “This bill will save lives. There is no disputing that. And yet there is still resistance to it. Still people who think an extra pint is worth risking a life and who are not shy about expressing this view – even to those who have lost loved ones to drunk drivers.
Today therefore, it is fitting that we honour the extraordinary bravery and heroism of those victims groups who worked so hard to get this bill over the line. Their selflessness and dedication as they try to ensure that others are spared the grief that they suffer, is awe-inspiring. Today, please spare a moment to think of them and the loved ones they have lost.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Can a body be mummified in a week, considering the humidity in that part of the world?
I saw the guy Dave.
The body was well preserved considering the length of time that he had been dead.
At first it was thought that it was murder when a local fisherman brought him ashore.
Poor guy.
Apparently he was a very experienced sailor.
Interesting article here (graphic warning):
His last comunication was a year ago and the condition of the interior of the yacht would seem to indicate a much longer timeframe than one week. I’m no expert but I wouldn’t have thought one week would be enough to mumify a body like this.
He was mummified by the ocean winds, warm temperatures and salt air according to the Examiner.
I saw the pictures aswell. Noway all that mildew grew in 7 days. Saw a reprt the boat was seen adrift in early Jan
According to the Independent article linked above..
“has been discovered on his yacht drifting off the coast of the Phillipines seven years after the last reported sighting and a year after the last message received from him”
Don’t know where the 7 days idea came from…He’s been dead a while!
Great way to go.
So a body can be mummified by sea air in the space of a week? I belive this to be a shoddy article.
Can’t really call it a shoddy article if they’re reporting what the coroner has said.
@craig
pretty sure the coroner just said he died of a heart attack, not how long ago it happened.
“The German national is estimated to have been dead for more or less seven days,” he added, citing a police statement by police in the southern Philippines.”
No it literally says it there in your quote. The “dead more or less seven days, citing a police statement” part.
“acute myocardial infarction” – a heart attack if you’re a working class schmuck!
Oh no, that feels like a heart attack, I’d better strip naked. You can always trust the Filipino police when it comes to foreigners.
I dunno, if you’re isolated on a boat in the Pacific ocean there’s probably not much point in being dressed all the time.
If I was on my own yacht cruising around the Philippines you can be damn sure I’d be naked too.
he was German , Germans on yachts are usually Naked , and it doesnt matter that he was German, most single handed sailors sail naked when the weather is good …
He is covered with salt from sea spray from waves washing over the boat.
That can happen in days in the blistering tropical heat.
Salt water evaporates in minutes in the tropics, leaving a salt crust on everything.
He is encrusted in salt.
Mind you.
We humans preserve fish by salting them.
The sea strikes back at humans.
P.S.
The fact that seabirds had not already picked him clean into a skeleton means that he was dead for only a week or two at most.
I wonder how much cash he had on board. None? What a surprise
have your say