The Government couldn't care less about road safety

Don't know the road then slow down.

Not sure why you want to know "accident black spots"? drive the car safely. Why you need a flashing beacon to tell you to drive safely?

The government only care about issues that are trending. Then they only care about them while they are trending. Essentially they react in the short term but in reality achieve nothing. It's the worst government in a century. What have they actually achieved through legislation or spending? Zero.

Here ya go:

Seriously, you should be driving like every road is a black spot, because they are. (Yeah, even those bits of west Cork that I didn't manage to cover.)

What pisses me of is the amount of people that when there side of the road is blocked by parked car or whatever,think that’s is perfectly fine to drive on the other side

yeah just plough away,and run me off the road ,ya Audi driving prick

There are cars on the road with a big screen that can be used to watch movies while driving. How is allowing those brands of cars on the road good for road safety? I can't check my phone at traffic lights but someone can be booting around tertiary roads watching Netflix.

You can't watch the screen when driving unless you hack the system. Plenty of people are driving around with their mobile phone mounted in the middle of the screen under the rear view mirror, which creates massive blind spots, while using maps or watching movies/sport/etc.

No, it's illegal to watch Netflix while driving though. The cars are sold where the ability to show videos only works when stopped then people hack the system to watch when moving, but people with cars that can't show Netflix are driving around with their phones playing Netflix.

The car being able to play videos or games doesn't mean that you can play videos or games while driving, just like a car being able to do 180km/h doesn't mean that you can do 180km/h on a public road here. Even the cars where people complain about everything being on touch screens is BS as they all have voice control so there's no need to use the screen while driving, it's takes a bit of practice to get used to the commands but you can control nearly everything by voice with zero need to take your eyes off the road.

My new car has a touch screen for everything. All functions are in menus where you have to look at the screen and do multiple taps.

To turn up the heating temp its 3 taps. You have to be looking at the screen to do it. Same to turn on the radio. Or even the fog light.

These things are worse than putting car controls on a phone for the driver to change via phone.

I dont know how it happened that touch screens became the norm instead of buttons, but i think its a total U-turn for car safety.

The point in bold is extremely flawed logic and if taken as gospel by anyone, is another significant cause of accidents.

It is ultimately up to individual circumstances to determine a safe speed for oneself in any given scenario. For example weather conditions, traffic, type of vehicle being driven will all effect what one would call a "safe speed" - again within reason. There is some level of individual responsibility required. They aren't a target though, that is for sure.

It's hard to blame "bad roads" for the issues - while there are no doubt "bad roads" thats not really within the control of the individual driver - what is in their control is how thye drive on these "bad roads" and their driving should be modified to suit the standard of the road/risks etc.

Blaming the state, the council, the roads etc isn't a good situation, while no doubt more can be done to improve things, ultimately your life is in your own hands, unless of course some other idiot road user does something daft that leads to your early demise as well, in which case it's in everyones interest to tighten up on laws and regulations in relation to road use.

I don't have a new enough car to have one of these in it but I have seen them and have often wondered about the distraction levels one of these can provide. As you've said, its relatively easy on most "older" cars to change certain things around the car environment etc that don't require a whole lot of attention. I am sure not all of these newer cars have voice controls but even if they do, I am sure they are not 100 percent reliable.

Growing population equals more road users, more road users equals more chance of accidents. Also factor in the increase of greater commuting distances by more people and service vehicles driving up and down the country. The local economy is in decline and much more common to have sales and tech people driving all over the country as part of their job.

Personally never seen the roads so busy, was a time there would be a lull in the middle of the morning, traffic is constant now. So stands to reason there will be more accidents.

Rsa are blinded by reducing numbers, 'Vision 2050' where they want zero road deaths by 2050 is an unachievable goal. They need a rethink about how they are going to reduce numbers but it will never be zero.

I'm glad you've admitted it, I've made this point for years, cars themselves are getting too distracting, but anyone I've said it too seems oblivious to it and proclaims it as a good thing and the convenience is great. Driving has become too convenient and people have become detached from the task at hand.

completely agree. I changed my Dacia 2017 to a 2020 recently and am relieved and pleasantly surprised to see it still has the big knob buttons for heat, fans, lights, air con, hazards etc and they're easily accessible. The media/radio centre is touch screen but I set it before I go and that's it.

My sister got a Hyundai recently and absolutely everything is on a touch screen, she couldn't find any controls without going into a huge menu on screen which means if she needs heat/ fan/ air con she has to use the screen while driving or pull off the road. Madness

There is a huge increase in aggression and bad judgment on the roads since Covid. Lowering speed limits won’t fix this.

Drivers overtaking multiple vehicles at a time on rural roads. How the F do they know when they are that far back whether there is actually a cyclist or pedestrian on the road slowing down the traffic.

Pulling out to wrong side of road to overtake traffic so they can pull out of a junction. Complete disregard for traffic lights.

If you are an aggressive/ bad driver you rely hugely on other drivers to slow down and stop because of your actions. I personally wouldn’t trust other drivers to do this so it’s crazy to me that some people do.

Black spots got pulled at the behest of the private speed van company. It would have been just too obvious that they weren't concerned with dangerous places, just with their bottom line.

Yet another criminal transfer of money from the public to cronies of our scum politicians.

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IMHO it seems silly to dismiss the OPs point and say "oh it's all on the driver". And at the same time I agree it is all on the river however, again, it's silly to dismiss accident black spots. If there are identifiable stretches of roads that have much higher than average accidents surely there is a factor at play there that shouldn't be glibly ignored?

The government only cares about road safety to the extent it will affect the next election.

If there are a lot of crashes they need to be seen to be doing something...

A crash caused by someone pissed drunk - reduce the alcohol limit from 80mg to 50mg.

A crash caused by dangerously high speed - reduce the speed limit from 80 km/h to 60 km/h.

It doesn't matter that the drunk was 5 times over the old limit or that the speeder was showing off to his passengers doing 120 in an 80 zone - they are seen to be doing something. If you want to logically reduce a speed limit from 80 to 60, you should be able to demonstrate that people driving at 70 in that area are the cause of the problem.

The primary responsibility is on every driver, but the government is responsible for our shocking lack of policing (and not just for road safety).