Search Results for 'Noel Gibbons'

Pedestrian Safety is the theme for the UN Road Safety Week which takes place this week from May 6 to May 12.

By Toni Bourke

Clerics in Co Mayo blessed the county’s roads in a novel ceremony aimed at reducing the number of people who die in traffic accidents each year over the Easter weekend. The campaign comes after Gardaí expressed serious concern over a rise in road deaths in the west over the past two years which runs contrary to the downward trend nationally. Single vehicle crashes involving male drivers in random locations constituted the largest number of fatalities in the region last year, while overall deaths in the region had risen from a low in 2010. Speeding in 80km/h and 100km/h zones had been identified as a major factor in fatalities in the west.

Clerics in Co Mayo will bless the county’s roads in a novel ceremony aimed at reducing the number of people who die in traffic accidents each year over the Easter weekend.

A campaign is being organised this Easter by Road Safety Mayo County Council, the Mayo Advertiser, and Helena Chocolates, Castlebar, whereby members of the public are asked to come up with a road safety slogan to be put on an Easter egg, and the winner will receive an Easter egg with the slogan on it sponsored by Helena Chocolates.

You’d often hear people say look at your man with the high vis jacket. He thinks he’s running the show just because he’s wearing that. They scoff because he has the authority to tell them where they can’t loiter, much to their disdain. These remarks are usually heard at local community events where a group of organisers don the high vis to ensure the smooth running of the particular event. And there is always one dude who thinks he’s been handed the freedom of the village when he gets the high vis on his back.

Galway City Harriers athletes Brian O’Connor and Regina Casey took the honours in a hilly 10k course on Sunday in the Clonbur/ Cong area in a race in aid of the Zambia Housing Project.

There will be more cyclists on Irish roads this summer enjoying the warmer weather with the success of the bike to work scheme, an extending cycle network, and a growing interest in people to keep fit.

You didn’t realise it, but an MP3 player can kill you. The road safety office of Mayo County Council highlighted the dangers of what it calls “iPod oblivion/zombie alert,” which it describes as “a trance-like or zombie state entered by the fashion of some people using MP3 players, phones and electronic organisers on the move,” and which it believes is a contributory factor to many of the pedestrian/cyclist deaths in the Ireland each year. There were 28 pedestrians and eight cyclists killed on Irish roads in 2012. It is not known how many of these cases were caused by people listening to music because the Department of Transport and the Gardaí do not have this information at their disposal.