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WITH THIRTY PER cent of recent road accident victims aged 25 or under, raising awareness of road safety among that age group really is a life or death situation.
Emergency services and Civil Defence volunteers helped bring the reality of road traffic accidents home to about 200 students at University College Dublin yesterday, staging a ‘crash’ on campus.
While college authorities had spread the word to students that there would be a simulated incident taking place at 11am, a spokesperson for the project said that some students would have come unsuspecting upon the scene.
The staged scenario saw emergency services including gardai, Dublin Fire Brigade and the HSE National Ambulance Service paramedics attend the scene of a crash between two cars. One woman, not wearing a seatbelt, was dressed for a serious head injury and possible spinal issues while the other driver, a man in his late teens, was breathalysed and ‘arrested’ by gardai.
The event was organised by Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council – in association with the Dublin Metropolitan Area traffic corps – to bring home a road safety message to the onlooking young drivers. According to Seamus Storan, road safety engineer of DLRCC, it also served as valuable training for the emergency services involved.
A spokesperson for the event said that the commitment of those taking part to hammering home the message of road safety was so high that the firefighters volunteered to come along after their own length work shift had finished, using reserve fire engines and equipment to cut the two ‘drivers’ from the cars.
Seamus Storan said:
This is an innovative way of bringing home the real impact of car accidents which the emergency services must attend on a daily basis nationwide.While collisions can have many causes, the one thing that all serious car collisions have in common is that they destroy lives forever and place an immense burden on families and communities.
This initiative is targeting the 18 – 24 age groups where accident statistics show the highest fatality rates.
It isn’t just about fatalities – in 2012, there were 6,389 people injured on the roads. A total of 162 people died on our roads – 29 pedestrians, 8 cyclists, 95 car occupants, 19 motorbikers and 11 others. We are now heading towards the 150-person mark in road deaths so far this year.
These images were taken during yesterday’s simulation. They are incredibly powerful but also distressing in some cases, so be warned before you click through the slideshow:
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Allowing citizens who wish to imbibe weed to grow three or four plants would go a long way to reducing the hold criminals have on the supply, which more and more is now sprayed with contaminants, from ground glass to add weight, K2 or Spice to increase the strength, which has horrendous consequences on mental health, to God knows what else they are spraying on weed. Most weed in Europe, England and now Ireland, is adulterated with these unpredictable in effect and dangerous to the users health chemicals. Which are also highly addictive. Time is long over due for a fresh approach to our anti drug policies.
@P0h2YVAL: Licensed premises selling tested strains labelled for cannabinoid content would go even farther.
@P0h2YVAL: Maybe people should stop taking drugs that alter their minds. Its servers no purpose only to escape from reality. Recreational drugs have zero benefit to society. Look at the problems alcohol causes alone. Q list of jobless morons or unmotivated buffon’s with zero drive claiming I’m a killjoy or a bore. I was well able to go clubbing and enjoy nights out without the need for cocaine weed, mdma etc. Ban it all with zero tolerance for users. It’s absolutely ludicrous how acceptable illegal drugs use is. End demand and in turn it end the violence associated with the supply.
@Mike Carson: All ‘drugs’ are not the same and if it was just ‘jobless morons’ then we wouldn’t have a problem, I’m not convinced we even do, but people rarely seek research that challenges them, more inclined to search instead for reasons to bolster an opinion or feeling.
Great article, an interesting read
I agree – they should be made available freely and the ones who want to use it all the time will sort themselves out. Darwins theory and everything..
@Kush OMeara: You might be surprised at how little harm most of these drugs do when they’re clean, labelled, predictable and not being pushed just made available.
I can just imagine his next article, “People trafficking, why stopping it might cause more harm than it prevents.”
This warped mindset is what has been preached in third level education for decades now, and here we have the result, an actual brainwashed professor advocating for the free circulation of Class A drugs.
They may couch it in ambiguous semantics, but that is their goal.
If you agree with this argument vote uniparty, FF/FF/SF/Labour/Green/SocDem and other Marxist lunatics at the next election.
@Garry Coll: The current policy has people pushing adulterated drugs at anyone who can be talked into buying them irrespective of age or mental stability.
It causes violence as people are punished for the debt they owe on the drugs that have just been seized. Most dealers work on credit and cannot pay for the drugs if they don’t get to sell them.
It causes health problems because of the adulterants and unpredictable strength.
So yes we need a better solution, what’s your suggestion – hint there is strong evidence that increasing the level of enforcement doesn’t work.
@Steve O’Hara-Smith:
Looking at how you respond to almost every comment on this article, you must be either the nutty doctor’s alter ego or some stinking troll sitting in the basement of the office of the Journal paid to push a druggie agenda.
Just to recall, people remember the COVID lockdown period, when nobody could walk down the street, go to the beach, or basically fart, without finding a member of the Gardai in their face.
Do you remember who could move around freely?
Oh yes, drug importers and pushers.
Cocaine was never as freely available.
So don’t give me any rancid garbage about “the current policy”.
Government policy is to flood the country with as much drugs as trafficked migrants, in the hope that young people will be too stoned to notice what’s going on.
@Garry Coll: Neither apply. I’m sitting at home. This just happens to be a subject I care about
Many people could move around freely during the lockdowns. All you needed was a reason.
I was out twice a day taking my daughter to her horse for example.
Naturally the dealers found or manufactured reasons to be on the road.
Government policy appears to be to support organised crime by ensuring that their business is not destroyed by legal competition.
Organised crime gangs are the only people who benefit from prohibition.
@Steve O’Hara-Smith: Stephen anybody that can’t see that the current legislation is doing more harm than good for addicts casual drug users alike is far removed from the situation.. gerrys posts are embarrassing and do not warrant a reply..
@Stiles: I know, but if I put all the points in one post it would be an article not a comment.
@Steve O’Hara-Smith: More reason to stop the end user. Make the sanctions more severe. Huge fines, prison even a criminal record for possession. Too many people think it’s acceptable to use coke, mdma etc. Most people under 30 are taking these drugs at the weekend thinking its normal behaviour. Stopping supply wont work so time to focus on the demand.
After five decades of the enforcement-driven global drug control system, the “war on drugs” faces unprecedented scrutiny. Originally aimed at achieving a “drug-free world,” this effort has instead fueled a staggering illegal drug trade. Despite over a trillion dollars spent, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that 270 million people still use illegal drugs, while organised crime reaps over $330 billion annually from the world’s largest illicit commodity market. Ian Marder does Irish society a service by asking us to reflect on the efficacy of current drug policies.
The most fantastic bit of gaslighting I have seen in the journal in a long time ,
We are already one of the biggest users of cocaine in Europe,but sure don’t try and stop it we don’t want the price going up for the poor user ,cost of living crisis strikes again.
@sean weir: Read the article again. Our current approach is counter-productive we need a better one.
@sean weir: They’ve been failing to stop it for 50 years. The reality is (this is a bit of a shocker)… most people are fine.
@sean weir: European Drug agency has stated many times that there is no correlation between legalisation and increased usage … in fact I believe in some cases it led to decreased usage in teenagers..
@Steve O’Hara-Smith: we need to address the fact that we should make weed legal and tax the hell out of it ,use this money to treatment for addicts as a option instead of jail.
And put up sentences for major dealers that ensure the penalty is greater than the crime .
Drugs aren’t bad, m’kay….
This is just anti-prohibition propaganda dressed up as “ReSeArCh”
I’m not going to say I back or oppose prohibition, but this article is disingenous .
Mate of mine is Garda SDU in the west of Ireland. He told me they know where gangs keep their drugs, guns and cash but that if they raid the spots, people get paro and then feuds kick off
@Littlebirdie: Legalise, license and regulate.
Watch the gangs go broke.
And he calls himself a Dr
@Dominic Leleu: He’s an assistant professor of criminology at Maynooth University. His PhD comes from Leeds University and is in Criminal Justice Studies.
He has the qualifications and experience that say he knows what he is talking about.
Harsher penalties for the end user.If targeting supply isn’t working, perhaps it’s time to attack users rather than portraying them as victims and adopting a soft accepting mindset towards them; after all, they are the ones fueling the death and bloodshed involved with the illegal drug trade. Demand drives this business, just as it does any other. Reduced demand makes the business no longer viable. Cartels lose revenue and collapse.
Source: Conor McCabe Photography" title="">
Source: Conor McCabe Photography" title="">
Source: © Conor McCabe Photography" title="">
Source: © Conor McCabe Photography" title="">
Source: © Conor McCabe Photography" title="">
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