Wants visitors helped 'to stay on proper side of road'
Fine Gael frontbencher Denis Naughten says the statistics indicate that over the summer months as many as 17 fatal accidents would involve foreign drivers.
"A proportion of them will inevitably come about because the visitor's car will be travelling on the right hand side of the road when the crash happens.
"The Irish Insurance Federation claim that between 10% and 15% of accidents involving hired cars are the result of tourists being on the wrong side of the road,'' he says.
Deputy Naughten claims around a million tourists from North America and the Continent of Europe use cars to get around Ireland and they find driving on the left-hand side 'disorientating'. Added to the poor quality of many Irish roads, that adds up to 'a deadly combination that can lead to disaster'.
He wants an electronic warning system in hire cars to tell motorists when they were on the wrong side and the doubling of warning road signs nationwide.
An in-car system has already been developed in Ireland, but the government has failed to promote its use - pointing to `a degree of institutional complacency', he claims.
"When a lapse of concentration happens, these drivers post a greater risk on our busy roads and in some cases Irish families are left with the fatal consequences,'' Mr Naughten says.