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Taxi’s having Hi Viz Jackets could help reduce road deaths: Gaffney

Following the tragic death of another young pedestrian on Irish roads over the weekend, Fine Gael’s ‘Local Area Representative’ in Sligo, Blaine Gaffney, has called on the Road Safety Authority (RSA) to consider issuing Ireland’s taxi companies and Public Service Vehicles (PSV’s) with their branded high visibility jackets, as a relatively low cost, measure which could help to prevent similar deaths from occurring in the future.  

Gaffney stated “taxi’s and PSV’s are the most common vehicles on Irish roads at the busy weekend nighttime periods and its felt that in the event where a taxi driver cannot stop and take on a fare or stop and give a lift to people they see walking on the roads in the dark, the least they can do in this situation as a priority is to provided them with a high visibility jacket that will allow them to be visible to passing traffic.

“Following the news of this tragic accident in Dublin at the weekend, I have been contacted about this by a concerned local taxi driver here in Sligo who has stated that people walking home on roads with no public lighting from nights out is a worrying common occurrence in Sligo and there are real fears that someone will be hurt again in similar incidents in the future.

“I believe that there is support for this measure within the taxi industry here in Sligo and that it could be rolled out relatively easily. However, I feel that this should really become a national policy and on that basis I have written to the Chairperson of the RSA, Mrs. Liz O’Donnell, to highlight to her this proposal and I have also placed a large order for these free high visibility jackets in order to provide them to the interested taxi drivers in Sligo.

“Its only a small measure, but if followed up on by the RSA, could save a life in the future, and for that reason I think its is very important to fight for this policy and to at least get it off the ground here in Sligo” concluded Gaffney.