David Doyle-
Over the past number of years, Ireland has woken up to the fact that it has a serious problem with road safety. However this realisation has left people with a challenging question to answer; just how do we combat this carnage on the road? There have been many solutions posited from education to advertising campaigns and while some improvements have been made, the death toll on Irish roads is still staggeringly high. A new, innovative solution needs to be found. It is vital that if you live in Ireland or any other part of the country then you take the necessary road safety precautions to prevent risks on the road. You can install equipment in your car to ensure safety on the road such as Blackbox My Car dash cams, which will record your journey whilst driving and help navigate you around those tight corners. If you end up in a car accident and you have your dashcam footage it will be easier to file a claim because you have the evidence needed. This will reduce the amount of frustration you could face when trying to make a claim on a recent accident so take the best precautions you can. But because of this is a global issue faced by many countries it isn’t always so easy to tackle.
One of the ways which is increasingly being turned to worldwide to combat problems within society is drama, and it seems time that Ireland considers using this medium to explore the issues around road safety. Using drama to try and combat road carnage is not something new and has been readily used in several countries, most noticeably in the United Kingdom where student led drama productions which explore issues around road safety have recently sprung up.
Drama has a long history of engaging in social issues, so its application to road safety should be of no surprise and indeed it may be the perfect medium for engaging with teenagers who have become desensitised to the recurring road safety ads which have run on television for the last number of years. It offers a forum for exploring a sensitive situation in a personal and deeply engaging way which is something that is often lost through the medium of television. Indeed, it may be the intimacy of theatre that initiates a change in people’s thinking as they are drawn in to the emotional impact of the story in a setting which allows for a greater exploration of the issue than the few seconds that an advertisement runs for.
However the use of drama as a tool to combat road safety problems in Ireland must come with one condition attached, it must be student led. The problem at hand is one that deeply affects students, given the fact that it is an issue which disproportionately affects young people, and so the solution must come from students. If drama is to be used to combat the problem, students must be involved at all stages to make sure that there is an authentic feel to the pieces and not one which seems overly didactic. Too often are students forced to endure things which have been devised by older generations which have an inauthentic feel to them and to do something similar with road safety drama would not only fail to work, it may very well be detrimental to the very cause it aims to help.
Indeed, the fact that road safety drama initiatives in the UK have been so successful is down to the very fact that they are student led. There is scope for such an initiative to be implemented here and one which may have a long and meaningful impact on road safety in Ireland. By no means will drama around road safety end the daily deaths on Irish roads, but it may well be another tool in the fight to end the carnage and may finally be the project that actively engages students on an issue which touches so many of their lives.
