Dublin Urged to Translate Road Safety Message

Road signs in Latvian, Russian and Polish should be installed on Ireland's twisting country roads to remind eastern Europeans to drive on the left and avoid alcohol, the republic's main opposition party has urged.

The proposal, made by Fine Gael's road safety spokesman Shane McEntee, follows mounting concern about the death toll among the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers who have found jobs in the country's meat-packing plants, building sites and food-processing factories.

Of the 125 people killed on Ireland's roads up until mid-April, 19 were from eastern Europe. On Good Friday four Polish men died when their car hit a truck outside Cork. In February a Lithuanian and four Latvians were killed when two cars collided head-on in Donegal.

"Nearly a quarter of all road traffic fatalities involved immigrants," said Nick Miller, a Fine Gael spokesman yesterday. "That is partially because they drive on the wrong side of the road and partially because they have a devil-may-care attitude to drink driving. They believe, wrongly, they will not be caught here.

"We have called for road signs to be put up in Latvian, Russian and Polish to get the message across. There are already some signs up in French and German reminding people to drive on the left. We have not yet had a response from the Department of Transport."

Ireland's new-established Road Safety Authority is already considering translating its Rules of the Road booklet into eastern European languages. Last year 400 people died in road accidents in Ireland.