An Oireachtas committee will hear this morning that the Road Safety Authority (RSA) is “broken” and “beyond repair”.<\/p>\n
The Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) will tell the transport committee that the RSA needs “radical reform”.<\/p>\n
Its Deputy Vice President, Eugene Drennan will tell TDs and senators that the current driving and testing system is outdated and not delivering as it should.<\/p>\n
Mr Drennan will say a backlog in driving tests has resulted in learner drivers waiting “excessive periods” for a test.<\/p>\n
The IRHA will say that many of these learner drivers are “effectively forced into non-compliance because of the prolonged, unacceptable waiting times”.<\/p>\n
“They must travel to work or school. This is not a failure of learners; it is a failure of system capacity,” he will say.<\/p>\n
Mr Drennan will say the RSA has been slow to adopt education methods, such as the use of simulators, remote learning, and delivering driving education in a learner\u2019s first language.<\/p>\n
The association will also call for a comprehensive review of the Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) for HGV drivers.<\/p>\n
Mr Drennan will say the CPC is “not fit for purpose”, with the training amounting to “little more than a wasted day, despite the significant time and resources required to complete it”.<\/p>\n
“Its content, materials, and delivery are outdated and largely irrelevant to the needs of the modern HGV driver,” he will add.<\/p>\n
He will say the CPC is seen as a box-ticking exercise that is disconnected from real-world operational risks.<\/p>\n
The IRHA will also call for greater transparency in the reporting of collisions as “there is a significant difference between being present in a collision and being the causative factor”.<\/p>\n
Mr Drennan will say the association is “highly doubtful that the RSA in its current format and structure can be repaired and relaunched”.<\/p>\n
Transport Security Force ‘absolutely vital’<\/p>\n
The National Bus and Rail Union will tell the committee that investment in bus lanes and adequate enforcement to keep them clear is “paramount for safety”.<\/p>\n
“Every time a bus has to manoeuvre around obstacles, illegally parked cars, or other obstructions, it increases the risk of accidents,” its Assistant General Secretary Thomas O\u2019Connor will say.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Connor will also call for mandatory high-vis clothing for all cyclists and users of scooters.<\/p>\n
He will say a Transport Security Force is “absolutely vital” and will need adequate legislative powers to protect drivers and passengers alike.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, SIPTU, which represents Dublin Bus, Bus \u00c9ireann and Go-Ahead Ireland will say the stakes are “uniquely high” for bus drivers transporting large numbers of passengers daily.<\/p>\n
It will say one of the most pressing concerns for drivers is the “increase in dangerous driving behaviours among general road users”.<\/p>\n
Its spokesperson will say speeding, distraction, and intoxicated driving “dramatically elevate collision risks for larger vehicles like buses that require longer stopping distances and have limited manoeuvrability”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Oireachtas committee will hear this morning that the Road Safety Authority (RSA) is “broken” and “beyond repair”.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-303685","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}