An urgent meeting of the North’s Road Safety Forum takes place tomorrow following the loss of five lives on the North’s roads in the first 10 days of the new year. The PSNI has said the loss of lives represents an “emergency”.
Minister for the Environment Mark H Durkan, who has already pledged to bring new road safety measures before fellow ministers on the Stormont Executive in response to the rise in road fatalities for 2013, said yesterday: "I will be looking at agencies and looking to hear from agencies as to what they feel they can do to promote road safety even further."
The Derry Assembly member said: "I have decided to convene a meeting of the Road Safety Forum to engage stakeholders in considering what more might be done to keep road users safe. Together we have made enormous strides in road safety in Northern Ireland and we must do everything we can to continue that progress."
'Sad start'
He added: "We have had a sad start to the new year and I want to reinforce the message that people need to use our roads with care. It is vital for everyone to think about what they are doing, to remain vigilant, to take responsibility for their actions and to look out for others.
“My sympathies are with all those who today are dealing with the loss of a loved one. I will do everything in my power to prevent any other family suffering such a tragedy.”
The spike in road deaths has prompted alarm from the PSNI and the Catholic clergy, who have appealed for greater care on the roads.
PSNI Supt David Moore said: "We've had someone dying on our roads every 48 hours in the early days of 2014. That's a month's worth of carnage in a little over a week and five families torn apart."
He added: "Five deaths already is far too much and we need the collective efforts of everyone in Northern Ireland to bring this to an end now."
Two more fatalities were recorded at the weekend. They include a 58-year-old man who died in a collision in Armagh on Friday, while a 22-year-old man was killed in an incident in Dunmurry, near Belfast.
Responsibility
The Catholic coadjutor archbishop of Armagh appealed for more care to be demonstrated by road users. Preaching yesterday in Armagh Dr Eamon Martin said: "Tragically 246 people were killed on the roads of Ireland, North and South during 2013. Already, in the first 10 days of 2014, five people have been killed on the roads of Northern Ireland and the PSNI say this is more than the total for the whole of January last year."
He added: “We all have a responsibility to exercise care and attention on the roads.”