AA Statement on 2015 Road Traffic Act

Statement from AA Ireland to Oireachtas Committee on Transport & Communications

22^nd April 2015

As the committee knows, road traffic legislation needs to be kept up to date. There are continual changes in technology, cultural behaviours and norms, and other societal changes that mean that the Law has to evolve to keep pace.

We also have much higher standards now, and rightly so. Last year there were 195 people killed on Irish roads. From the 1970s through to the 1990s that would have been thought of as terrific as the average number of annual deaths was in the 400s or worse.

But it is an unacceptable number by the standards we have achieved in the last decade. There had been steady incremental improvements year on year until 2013, and from then on we appear to have stalled. Certainly our standards have improved to the point where we can now compare ourselves to the best performing countries such as the UK, Netherlands and Sweden but we appear to have stopped getting better.

The AA has discussed the reasons for this elsewhere. It probably relates more to enforcement of existing law than to gaps in legislation but even so there are legislative gaps and areas that need to be improved. There always are, and the 2015 up-grade of the Act makes a number of changes.

As we read it there are 9 significant provisions in the draft legislation. Some are simple updates or technical changes, some make new law that is uncontentious and will be generally welcomed.

The issues that we have identified are as follows:

1. Drugs and Driving

The Act will allow Garda to use a mouth-swab or other detection kit in the same way that they use a breathalyser for alcohol. There is detail on how those kits are to be provided, definitions of illicit and legitimate drugs etc.

From a purely road safety point of view this is welcome. The AA supports any and all measures that aim to reduce the incidence of impaired driving on the roads.

But this is likely to prove very complicated in its implementation and the regulations that flow from this legislation will need to be very carefully drafted.

For legal drugs like prescription medications, you will be guilty of an offence if those drugs impair your driving. This places a responsibility on the motorists which is there already but will now have more significant and clearer consequences in an environment where you are more likely to be detected.

For illegal drugs, the law currently is that you can be asked to provide a specimen if you fail the sobriety test or if a Garda forms a view that your driving is impaired. You will now also be required to provide a specimen if a mouth-swab test indicates the presence of an impairing drug.

It is important to note that the road-side test is only for screening. It will be calibrated to ensure that it will only read positive when levels are high enough to indicate significant, recent usage. The technology is limited currently though it is improving. It will be for the Medical Bureau of Road Safety to assess and certify the equipment.

There are certain types of drugs, notably cannabis, benzodiazepenes and ecstasy, where traces can remain detectable long after an impairment has passed. We do have to make sure that road safety check-points do not act like random drug tests for the population which is not the intent. But once we are sure that the focus is on impaired driving this will be a measure that should be welcomed.

The new law will also require employers to introduce drug test regimes for drivers of buses, mini-buses & HGVs. Employers and employees will have legitimate questions about how that operates, again requiring consultation and careful regulations.

2.  Mobile Phones & other devices

It will become an offence to use any type of electronic device to access the internet, email, video, text, social media, calls etc. This extends the current law, or at least gives the Minster power to do so by regulation. It also addresses an anomaly whereby SMS texts are mentioned in law but texts via Apps etc are not.

The updated law will focus on using any device for a ‘data input exercise’ while driving. This will mean ‘cradle-borne’ or hands free devices become treated in the same way as hand held devices, addressing quite a number of current anomalies (eg when is a phone just a SatNav, what are the rules around using these while driving). This is definitely a good idea and one which motorists will support.

It will never be possible to cover every possible behaviour in primary legislation. The existing law makes it an offence to drive ‘without reasonable consideration’, and that clause can still be used for things not specifically mentioned, eg razors, make-up etc.

3. Penalty points

The law will be tidied up with respect to some penalty point offences and a new offence is brought in – driving a heavy vehicle with a trailer greater than 3.5 tonnes without the proper driving licence becomes a 3-point offence.

This is welcomed.

4. Written Off Vehicles

It will become an offence to use a written-off vehicle in a public place unless it is exempted by regulation, which would cover properly-repaired former write-offs. This law will provide for a national register of write-offs and a set of other provisions.

This measure will provide a statutory footing for what is currently an administrative process. Insurers currently keep a log of car write-offs which are reported to the National Vehicle Data File which is useful. However there is a need for a more sophisticated regime of regulation and data-sharing so that the public can reasonably know if a car has previously been a technical write-off.

The change in law is welcome, but as with other provisions the regulations that flow from it will need to be carefully worked out.

5. Mutual recognition of driving disqualifications between Ireland and UK.

This is already live for 5 years and this is just a technical change. It is required to replace a joint Ire / UK agreement based on the EU Convention on Driving Offences with a new bilateral agreement. This is because the UK has decided to withdraw from the EU Convention with effect from last December.

This is just a technical provision and does not raise any concerns. More broadly, harmonisation and mutual recognition of offences with the UK, especially Northern Ireland, is an important long term strategy.

6. Sharing of Insurance Information by Insurers

The existing law (Sect 78A) provides for insurers to provide certain details of insurance to the Minister, the Gardaí and the MIBI on new policies created and on existing policies cancelled but the existing section does not specify what details are to be provided. This will now be updated to include:

Name address & particulars, period of cover, limitations to use, persons or classes of persons covered, vehicle or class of vehicles covered, drivers or classes of drivers whose driving is covered.

This is entirely sensible.

7. Cyclists

Cyclists will now be obliged to provide on demand to a garda the same information that a motorist would be obliged to do with the same penalties and power of arrest for refusal. While this law doesn’t achieve it, the long term intention of the Department is to bring cycling offences within the penalty points regime. That will require a lot more thought and discussion and AA would not necessarily support it but in the meantime the requirements for cyclists contained in this Act are reasonable.

8. Roadworks & speed limits

There will be new & better rules for speed limits at the scene of Roadworks as proposed in the recent Speed Limits Review.

This is a sensible measure that should be implemented without delay.

9. Law on ‘Sulky Races’ with animal-drawn vehicles

There will be a new tougher law on ‘sulky races’ typically organised by the Travelling Community. Any such events will require a local authority licence and anyone participating in an unlicenced event (not just the organiser) will be guilty of an offence.

Unregulated activity like this presents unacceptable risks to participants and the general public. While recognising a desire to facilitate the long-standing traditions of the community it is important to act in the interests of public safety.

The AA supports the measure.