In just one recent weekend, 19 people were killed on Polish roads. Surely not the kind of holiday-time news we want to hear, but the message is repeated over and over like some terrible mantra.
Back in Poland at the beginning of the summer, I had an opportunity to travel a new circular road built to lighten traffic through a popular tourist town. The road had been opened just a few months before, but there was already one small white-painted cross on the roadside – a sign that somebody had been killed there in a road accident.
It seems as though the more we modernise our roads, the more deaths occur on them. Speed cameras in cities and towns might help some, but beyond inhabited areas some motorists continue to drive like maniacs, adding to the weekly death toll.
Throughout the summer both Irish and Polish TV promoted road safety campaigns. It was the former that for me had the bigger impact, but I get the feeling that most of RTÉ’s shocking spots would probably not pass as ‘fit for a general audience’ on TVP, lest they be met with angry comments from parents suddenly concerned about the violence their children are exposed to. Perhaps the softness of Poland’s approach is simply not enough to alter the ‘it won’t happen to me’ attitude.
It’s a very common attitude – I shared it myself when I was younger. Every time my mother saw me getting on my bicycle, she always asked me to ride carefully. My answer was the same every time: I’m a good cyclist, nothing will happen. But was it true?
Irish roads are not even half as dangerous as their Polish counterparts, although they have their own inherent risks. The country roads are often narrow, for instance, and flanked with trees and bushes. Yet I feel safer on the roads here, even while cycling in Dublin city centre. I hope this won’t change for the worse.
– Anna Paluch
