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“Don’t be the next statistic”
23.03.07
AROUND 1,000 students
from Donegal including Inishowen attended a
hard-hitting road safety seminar organised by the
PSNI in Derry yesterday.
As the county reeled from the deaths of five people
in four separate road accidents over the St.
Patrick’s Day bank holiday weekend, the young people
attending the ‘It Could Be You’ roadshow at the
Millennium Forum, heard graphic accounts of the
horror of road accidents from crash victims and
emergency service personnel.
PSNI Chief Supt. Richard Russell said he hoped the
conference would help get the road safety message
through to young drivers. “Don’t be the next
statistic,” he said. |
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Two of last weekend’s
fatalities occurred following a collision at Craig,
Muff, around 3.15am on Sunday when a car left the
road and hit a tree. Tony Doherty, 20, from Derry
and his 19 year old partner, Roisin Doherty, whose
parents are from Burt, died in the tragedy. They
left behind a two-year old daughter, Toni. |
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Meanwhile, yesterday’s
road safety roadshow also coincided with the
submission of another petition by the Public Against
Road Safety (PARC) group to the Government in
Dublin. PARC is campaigning for mandatory breath
testing at the scene of every road accident.
PARC founder Susan Gray from Culdaff said: “So many
people in Ireland have lost loved ones but they
can’t get closure because the drivers responsible
for the deaths were not tested for alcohol either at
the scene or later at the hospital. This is totally
unacceptable.” |
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