Comment: It won't be the last...

Yesterday's fatal multi-car pile-up on the M7 and M9 motorways was the result of a number of factors and bad driving was just one of them. There's no doubt that excessive speed in the thick fog that blanketed Ireland yesterday, non-use or mis-use of fog lights and even dipped headlights and good old fashioned moronic behaviour were the key factors, but there were some other, even more worrying things to consider.

To create a shunt that stretched for a mile, an awful lot of people had to be in an awful hurry, and no amount of electronic signs telling people that it's foggy (something that they should really be able to notice for themselves) or warnings from the AA and Gardai to use foglights and slow down will change that fact on a day-to-day basis.

One of the key problems facing Irish motorists at the moment is that journey times are stretching out further and further as our urban sprawls extend, and that translates into harassed, harried commuters. Combine that with bad weather (not just fog, could have been ice or even just plain old heavy rain) and the dominoes began to tumble.

There will always be a minority of people who drive like utter idiots and ignore any facet of improving their skills behind the wheel. We can only hope that these particular morons simply wipe out themselves and don't take any innocents with them. But for the rest of us, trying to make it to the office before we're fired for being late, or trying to make it home again to see the kids for at least five minutes before bedtime, the tightrope will continue.

It's symptomatic of a government, and preceeding governments, that has ceased to view you and I as citizens, and instead sees us as economic units. When we're in work and generating income and tax revenue, that's fine, but you can forget about any hope of improving the way things operate outside the office. Road safety and family life? Sure, what chance do they have in a policy environment utterly dominated by big-money lobby groups? And why would politicians care anyway? After all, our own Taoiseach, in a recent radio interview, said that he was going to retire soon, so wasn't too bothered about how things turn out.

And until this government or the next one sees the light and starts to seriously improve the road network, invest serious money in public transport and even starts to look to improving the chances of telecommuting and working from home then the daily commute is going to get tougher and tougher and more dangerous. And this accident will happen again. And take lives again. With elections coming up, maybe it's time to remind your local politicians just how much blood is on their hands.