THE government is to commit itself to reducing road deaths by 25% over three years. The target will be contained in a new road safety strategy to be published next month, writes Richard Oakley.

The new plan will also recommend that gardai breath-test 500,000 motorists a year and spend more time on road-traffic duties. The road safety strategy will run until 2006.

The number of people who died on Irish roads dropped from 458 in 1998 to 376 last year. That figure fell to 332 people so far this year. The reduction is being attributed to the penalty points system.

Experts believe the number of road deaths can be further reduced to 300 by 2006. This would represent 25% fewer deaths than the average for the last six years.

The strategy was developed by a high-level government group comprising gardai, the National Roads Authority and the National Safety Council.

It will be presented to Seamus Brennan, the transport minister, shortly.

The minister, who is known to dislike theoretical targets, is likely to accept its recommendations and turn most of its measures into government policy.

The previous road safety strategy set a target of a 20% reduction in road deaths from 1997 to 2002. That target was achieved, but only after the introduction of penalty points last year led to a drop in the number of fatal accidents.

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