Fifty-two people have died since 1 January, the worst opening six weeks to a year in over a decade. Eddie Shaw, who resigned from the National Safety Council last December over the government's failure to improve road safety, described the Road Safety Strategy, which is due to expire at the end of 2006, as "a first-class policy document" but warned that its recommendations had not been acted on.

"There is no hope of the Road Safety Strategy being implemented by the end of the year because there is too much that has not yet been done, " he said. "It is quite incredible that it has just been left to sit there. Even basic aspects of the strategy have not been implemented."

Internationally, road safety strategies are based around 'the three Es' of education, enforcement and engineering. Models from other EU countries show how successful this strategy can be.

Sweden, for example, has reduced road deaths by 20% since 1996. Ireland is one of the few EU countries where road deaths are increasing.

Last week, the Sunday Tribune contacted several experts in road safety and asked them for suggestions on how to reduce the carnage on Irish roads. The following are their main proposals.

1. Fit convex mirrors on trucks The National Safety Council has written to all the haulier companies in Ireland asking them to fit their trucks with convex mirrors in order to eliminate a driver's blind spot.

However, the Irish Road Haulage Association says the onus is on the government to make it illegal not to have the mirrors fitted.

"We have asked the manufacturers to fit them, " said Jimmy Quinn of the IRHA.

"We have asked different ministers on several occasions to please make them mandatory. There is an EU directive coming down the line in a year or two, but meanwhile we're hanging around while people are getting killed. It's totally needless and a disgrace." Some manufacturers have begun to fit the convex mirrors. It costs around 100 to do so.

2. Reduce the number of provisional licence holders on the road.

There are currently 404,000 drivers on Irish roads who hold only provisional licences.

Some of these drivers have failed their driving test, while others have not applied and may not have even received driver training.

In order to take provisional drivers off the roads, it is necessary to reduce the waiting list for driving tests. Currently there are over 130,000 drivers on the waiting list.

Despite government promises to speed up the process, there was a 20% decrease in the number of tests issued in 2005. There were 137,350 tests conducted last year, down from a high of 172,376 in 2001.

3. Random breath-testing The government announced two weeks ago that random breath-testing will be implemented by the start of the summer, despite previous advice from the Attorney General that it would be unconstitutional to do so.

However, it remains to be seen how this will be enforced. Statistics for 2004, the latest available, show that there were 9,516 roadside breath tests issued, which amounts to just one test per county per day. The odds of being breath-tested are currently 200-1.

4. Compulsory training for motorcyclists Motorbikes account for just 2% of registered vehicles on our roads but 12% of those that are killed are motorcyclists. Compulsory training is one of the policies in the Road Safety Strategy but has not yet been implemented.

Operation Bikesafe began in Northern Ireland in 1995.

Since then, events are held where experts teach motorbike users about road safety and bike maintenance and protective clothing. Motorcyclists can now book an assessed ride with a locallybased Advanced Police Motorcyclist to improve their driving skills. The scheme, originating in Portadown, is now a UK-wide initiative.

5. Formulate a policy to combat drug-driving There is currently no legislation to outlaw driving under the influence of drugs, despite the belief that drugs are a major factor in the carnage on our roads. According to Dorothea Dowling of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, legislation is urgently needed.

"There is no law that says you can't drive under the influence of drugs. It's ridiculous, " she said.

In the UK, police can test drivers for illegal drugs. The penalties for driving under the influence of drugs are the same as for drink-driving, with guilty parties facing a minimum one year driving ban, a fine of up to £5,000 and six months in jail.

6. Improve safety on non-national roads Ireland's road network is notoriously underdeveloped.

The length of non-national roads per 1,000 population (25.68km) is more than three times the EU average of 8.51km and almost twice that of any individual member state.

Non-national roads account for 94% of Ireland's road network and carry 62% of all road traffic. In other EU states, national roads . . .

such as motorways . . . remove much of this burden.

According to Eddie Shaw, former director of the National Safety Council, "smaller roads that are maintained by county councils have not been upgraded sufficiently and that is where people are dying. There are lots of regional roads with speed limits of 80km, which is far too fast."

7. Improve education According to Eddie Shaw, "children need to be taught that the road is a dangerous place for everyone , , pedestrians, passengers and drivers."

Noel Brett, the acting CEO of the NSC, says: "People train to pass the test, they don't train to drive safely for life. The way people are tutored and taught is critical." Brett has called for school students to study the driver theory test.

Despite being one of the aims of the Road Safety Strategy, there is currently no required standard for recognition as a driving instructor and there are an estimated 7,000 unregistered driving instructors operating.

The Roadwise scheme in Northern Ireland is an advanced driver education programme. Upon completion, drivers obtain up to 45% off their insurance policies.

The road accident fatality rate in the Republic . . . the number killed in road accidents per 100,000 population . . . is highest in the 18 to 24 age bracket.

8. Increased Garda presence, especially at weekends and between 9pm and 3am Legislation is meaningless without enforcement. Road fatality rates dropped after the introduction of penalty points in 2002 but rose soon after. According to Dorothea Dowling, this was because drivers soon realised their chances of being caught by gardai were minimal.

"When people thought they were going to get caught it was great, but everyone soon woke up to the fact that you weren't going to get touched by gardai with hairdryers on the side of the road, " she said.

"Just stop the people, haul them in, and prosecute them.

For most people, the prospect of just getting caught is a wake-up call. Let's just do what we have to do and what we can do , , put police on the roads."

The PSNI claim that their dedicated traffic patrol unit has had a great impact on road fatalities. A garda traffic corps has been established. However, currently just one driver per county is breathalysed per day.

9. Introduce speed cameras nationwide Speeding is the single biggest factor contributing to road deaths, with over 40% of fatal accidents caused by excessive speed. This is particularly an issue for male drivers in the 18 to 24 age bracket, who have a fatality rate over 10 times that of females in the same age bracket.

Despite plans under the Road Safety Strategy to introduce speed cameras nationwide by 2000, there are currently just three working cameras, all of which are in the Dublin area.

The Garda Siochana is currently composing a contract for tender relating to the nationwide speed camera programme. It is intended to have up to 600 sites monitored by camera, 50% of which will be on non-national roads.

According to Harry Cullen, head of Safety and Research for the National Roads Authority, "The contractor will have to complete 11 million checks a year, which means your car will be checked once every two months."

10. Seatbelts, lighting and mobile phones Seatbelt use is rising but even now only 85% of drivers buckle-up when in the car.

Rates vary throughout the country, with the lowest rate (80%) on what the NRA defines as "country roads".

The rate of seatbelt use on urban primary roads is 85%.

Currently, just 42% of rear seat passengers use seatbelts, although it is illegal not to do so. The government has set a target of 60% usage.

The National Safety Council has also started a campaign to encourage pedestrians to wear reflective materials, especially when walking at night along country roads which do not have pedestrian footpaths.

The use of mobile phones is also believed to be a factor in road collisions. Despite this, it is currently not illegal to drive while holding a phone.