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You are > Home > Personal tragedy fuels Kieran’s passion for better education
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Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Personal tragedy fuels Kieran’s passion for better education
By Gillian O’Neill
WORKING every day on the roads of Waterford may well have given driving instructor Kieran Kennedy an insight into the dangers facing road users, as well as into potential measures to improve matters.
But his passion for road safety and in particular better education for motorists is especially fuelled by a vivid childhood memory of personal loss on the roads.
“I was four years of age sitting on the kitchen floor. The memory is clear as a whistle. One of my granddads lived in the house with us and he was bringing me to school.
“My mother was standing at the window by the washing machine and my uncle came to the back door. He said Jo – that was my mother’s name – Jo your Dad is dead. I remember hardly anything else about living in Limerick but I remember that morning,” Kieran recalled with emotion.
While the memory evoked sadness it also induced anger and a clear sense of frustration as Kieran revealed the circumstances of his grandfather’s death.
“He was wiped out. He pulled in on the Ennis road. He was going playing cards and he got out to cross road. He had a dark coat on. A car came against him with one headlight.
“The car mowed down grandfather. What really kills me about it is that 40 years after grandfather was killed it is still not mandatory to wear a reflector jacket when walking in the dark. You have to wear one on a digger for God’s sake. My mother’s view on it was she didn’t want the man prosecuted even though he had a bald tyre and a defective headlight. But there are times when the pedestrian is wrong, it was my grandfather’s fault, he shouldn’t have walked across road. But how often do we hear the same story today, the pedestrian couldn’t be seen. Reflector jackets should be mandatory in dark areas and at night. They are €2 to buy now. There really is no excuse.”
There is much else in the system that causes frustration to Kieran as he goes about his daily job of training Waterford’s future motorists.
“Kids in Ireland, when they reach 17, overnight they’re allowed to start driving. Young people should be prepared for driving through schools even be allowed take lessons solely with a driving instructor as part of their transition year education. I have taught people from all over the world and there is no one more capable than Irish people. When I get a young person out, I can have them driving as good as myself in no time, they are very good at it. We just have to treat it seriously and make passing the test part of their overall education.
The capability is there, some of the kids after a few lessons are just brilliant. So why not integrate it into their education system, let them get a few marks in the leaving, it’s an easy subject to pick up if it is taught right and a lot more practical than some other subjects. I would have no problem, if given a schedule, spending a couple of hours a week free in a school. We have around 30 instructors in Waterford and Tramore at the moment, if they all gave two hours here and there wouldn’t we be doing a lot?”
Kieran also argued that some of the onus with regard to safety should be put back on the manufacturers.
“If legislation was introduced that from 2015 all new radios supplied to cars to be sold in this country would have to have blue tooth capability for years we’ve been getting the dirt when it comes to cars here and it’s about time the Irish government stood up and said you have to put these things in cars or not come in here.
30 years ago as an apprentice in CIE, we were sent over buses that you could set a speed limit on. Surely, in this day and age, we should have limiters or at least beepers on cars to warn people if they’re driving too fast.
Take that a step further and require that Sat Navs have speed recognition to beep if you are over the speed limit.
But I ask the question, are they serious about tackling speeding and would they be happy to give up revenue from people doing 56mph in a 50mph zone?”
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