that's more like it, gaybo

Gay : "Just so you all know, I'm actually going to take this job seriously..."
Martin "The Cat" Cullen : "Ah, now, steady on, Gay..."

One of the more curious appointments of recent times has been that of Gay Byrne to the chair of the Road Safety Authority.

True, it brought a high-profile figure to a position which, in this country, badly needs to be high-profile, yet up to now, I’ve wondered was it really worth it.

Now, according to the Indo, it seems he’s finally starting to flex his muscles.

Tommy Gorman (34) of Coach House, Milltownpass, and Alberto Rizzini (23) of Portloman, Slanemore, Mullingar.

Note their ages. They aren’t just a couple of kids.

Back in May they were caught by gardai doing 120 MILES per hour (192kph) as well as "weaving in and out of lanes, overtaking cars on the by-pass, travelling at high speed".

They were found guilty in court, and rightly so.

Their punishment?

They were fined €2,000 each. The real sickener was, one of them planned to sell his Lancia anyway, which would more than cover the penalty plus the legal costs.

These two assholes can still drive.

Now I’m no expert in justice, but I think I know what’s right and wrong. Ideally, they should be punished as if they had killed someone, but I would accept something that falls just short of this.

Surely a ban from driving should come as standard with this sentence at the very, very least.

Anyway – whatever the specifics of this particular case, fair play to Gaybo for bringing it and their names to our attention. His remit is one of public awareness and this is the kind of thing we should be aware of.

I wonder, though, if it really was a case of the judge being lenient, or was it a fault of the legislation? Maybe the judge really wanted to throw the book at them but knew he couldn’t?

NB : I just found RTE's website on road safety - it chronicles the fatal accidents as they happen, and adds a human element to them by publishing the names of those killed. This is impressive, but I believe Gaybo today brought it another crucial step. We need to be following these cases into the courtrooms and finding out exactly how they happened, and who was responsible. For me, that's the only practical thing we can do to make sure they don't happen as often.