'Crisis' - Over 11,000 learner drivers on Waterford roads
New figures released from the Irish Road Safety Authority (RSA) reveal that there are 394,128 learner permit holders on Irish roads.
11,247 of them are in Waterford.
2,653 of the learner permit holders in Waterford are aged between 17-20.
2,562 are aged between 30 and 39.
14 learner permit holders in Waterford are over the age of 80, while 77 holders are between 70 and 79 years old.
Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) President Ger Hyland spoke on the figures this week, saying that the levels of inexperienced drivers on our roads is “beggars belief”.
Hyland said he believes the surge of learner drivers on our roads poses a direct threat to Irish road safety.
He accused the RSA of not getting a handle on the issue.
“To have 394,128 inexperienced drivers on our roads is a testament to the failure of the Road Safety Authority and their mismanagement of our driver testing system" he said.
"It is a mess and not getting any better, despite all the creative accounting that the RSA are doing with driver testing figures”
"The RSA have ducked, dived and dodged accountability and transparency and it is high time that Minister Sean Canney called them to task."
