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Road Traffic (Northern Ireland)Order 2007

We greatly supported the aims of the Road Safety Act 2006 when it was going through Parliament, so we welcome the order. The Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland has done a lot of good work in trying to tackle road safety issues in Northern Ireland. Indeed, road deaths in Northern Ireland have gone down from 171 in 2000 to 125 in 2006. That must be good progress. That is a great success, but clearly thereis still a needless and tragic waste of life. It is particularly distressing that, of the 125 people who perished on Northern Ireland’s roads last year,34 were young people under 21. We welcome the provisions in the order on hand-held mobile phones. I am sure that all Members of the Committee will have witnessed improper use of mobiles while people are driving. The message that using a hand-held mobile phone is dangerous has not got through sufficiently. I hope that the measures before us will ensure that the message hits home. We also very much welcome the provisions on seatbelts and on breaching temporary speed limits. Of course we support the measures on road traffic offenders being able to attend a driver retraining course. We want to see a decrease in deaths and serious injuries, and we therefore support the order.