Man whose daughter was 'ploughed ' in road incident says changes to speed limits wont be a 'deterrent'

Leo Lieghio, board member of the Irish Road Victims’ Association joined Claire Byrne on Thursday, January 4 on RTÉ Radio 1 to discuss losing his daughter due to a road incident.

A total of 14 people have died in road incidents during the Christmas period and a total of three deaths in the New Year already.

The government are 'looking at sweeping changes to speed limits' however Leo disagreed it would be enough of a deterrent for drivers.

Leo said: “I do not talking about what happened but you have to in order to put a face to the statistics. If a person is caught, they know they have to be caught four times to be put off the road. My daughter was ploughed out of it by a hit and run at 15 and when I got the call I thought it was a joke and I realised no one could joke about something like that. All of these things you will miss, her debs, never getting to walk her down the aisle, I can only imagine what she would have been like. When you hear the figures people should be disgusted by that.”

Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan and Minister of State Jack Chambers have announced the publication of the final report emerging from the recently finalised Speed Limit Review.

The Speed Limit Review aims to address the fragmentation and inconsistency of speed limits on roads all over the country which will contribute to increasing road safety.

Key proposals include default speed limit on national secondary roads to reduce from 100km/h to 80km/h, default speed limit for the network of local and rural roads throughout the country to reduce from 80km/h to 60km/h, default speed limit on urban roads, which include built up areas as well as housing estates and town centres, to reduce to 30km/h.

Minister Chambers said: “There is no doubt that speeding is a significant contributing factor to many collisions. Implementing the recommendations from the Speed Limit Review will allow for a consistent approach to setting of speed limits across the country. The recommendations in this report will help us to achieve the government’s Road Safety Strategy 2021–2030 goal of halving fatalities and serious injuries by 2030."