Tom Doyle :: TALK

The jury of the M7 pile up last March, in which Kate Moyles died, have returned a verdict of accidental death. This I have no problem with, it was a very sad accident that claimed the life of a young lady. However, what I do have a problem with is their call for overhead warning signs.

Although disputed by Met Eireann meteorologist, it was apparently one of the foggiest days some people had ever seen that morning in March. So bad that you could hardly see the car in front of you. Yet the jury claim that overhead warning signs would have helped prevent this accident.

I’m sorry but, if you couldn’t see the car in front of you, how the hell are you going to see an overhead warning sign???

We as a nation always look to blame someone else for our own wrong doing and here in my opinion is another classis example. I mean absolutely no offence to the Moyles family, but there was a severe lack of judgement on the case of most people involved in the accident.

The driver of the fire engine that Ms Moyles crashed into stated that he couldn’t move into the outside lane (even with sirens and bluelights flashing) because traffic was moving too fast in the outside lane. For me, those drivers in this case were either:

1. bad enough drivers to not be on the lookout for dangers ahead;
2. bad enough drivers to not see a flashing blue light or a siren ahead (if they did, not to give them way);
   or…
3. bad enough drivers to not change their driving to match the adverse weather conditions.

The bottom line is that their judgement on how good their driving was on this day was completely wrong. These are the types of drivers that cause accidents and these are the types of drivers we need to take of our roads.

As a nation, we need to stop blaming others and look at our own abilities as drivers.