Leo Lieghio, VP of The Irish Road Victims Assocation

Good morning, Ciaran.

I'm good.

Thank you very much.

Great.

Now, I know you've been personally hit by this.

Your own 16-year-old daughter, Marcia, uh, was actually killed in a hit-and-run collision, so obviously that has made you very aware of just what's involved and probably motivated you to be an activist in this particular space, Leo.

Yeah, it is.

My Marcia was knocked down on the 16th of October in 2005.

It's 21 years ago, and she fought in Tallaght and Beaumont hospitals f- for six days fighting for her life, and sadly, she lost that fight and, uh-

Yeah.

It's-

Ever since then, it's been an uphill battle and just campaigning until I, for a number of years on my own, and then I got involved with the Irish Road Victims Association, which was founded in 2012 by Donna Price, and ever since we've been fighting all together.

Families that shouldn't have to bury their children, and yet we did.

Yeah, it's, and it's happening all the time, and, you know, a large proportion of the people, unfortunately, that are part of those numbers, and they are all people, not numbers, I k- need to stress that one, uh, they're under the age of 25.

Young people are, you know, uh, in- involved in an awful lot of these incidents, which is, which is a- again, even, even more of a tragedy, I think.

Every life is important, but to see so many young people die unnecessarily is, is such a shame.

Um, Leo, in terms of what can we do to campaign for safer roads? It's obviously something that's on your mind all the time and something you're thinking about all the time, but what are the things that can actually make a difference here?

Uh, the, the, like the figures we heard over last weekend are just, are just crazy.

Like, uh, and they have these en- the, these enforcements every bank holidays, but I, you know, why can't we have them 365 days a year, or at least every single weekend? Like we're told roads policing is on the increase.

Uh, and we've been told that for a long time, but it's not happening quickly enough, and it'll never happen quickly enough.

We'll never have enough Gardai for every road or for every street, and that's, I know it's an impossibility.

But we need to give the, the Gardai the tools that they need.

Like, we know what the problems are.

We know of behaviors killing people.

We know the speed, mobile phone use, drink, drug driving, fatigue, not wearing seat belts.

Good morning, Ciaran.

I'm good.

Thank you very much.

Great.

Now, I know you've been personally hit by this.

Your own 16-year-old daughter, Marcia, uh, was actually killed in a hit-and-run collision, so obviously that has made you very aware of just what's involved and probably motivated you to be an activist in this particular space, Leo.

Yeah, it is.

My Marcia was knocked down on the 16th of October in 2005.

It's 21 years ago, and she fought in Tallaght and Beaumont hospitals f- for six days fighting for her life, and sadly, she lost that fight and, uh-

Yeah.

It's-

Ever since then, it's been an uphill battle and just campaigning until I, for a number of years on my own, and then I got involved with the Irish Road Victims Association, which was founded in 2012 by Donna Price, and ever since we've been fighting all together.

Families that shouldn't have to bury their children, and yet we did.

Yeah, it's, and it's happening all the time, and, you know, a large proportion of the people, unfortunately, that are part of those numbers, and they are all people, not numbers, I k- need to stress that one, uh, they're under the age of 25.

Young people are, you know, uh, in- involved in an awful lot of these incidents, which is, which is a- again, even, even more of a tragedy, I think.

Every life is important, but to see so many young people die unnecessarily is, is such a shame.

Um, Leo, in terms of what can we do to campaign for safer roads? It's obviously something that's on your mind all the time and something you're thinking about all the time, but what are the things that can actually make a difference here?

Uh, the, the, like the figures we heard over last weekend are just, are just crazy.

Like, uh, and they have these en- the, these enforcements every bank holidays, but I, you know, why can't we have them 365 days a year, or at least every single weekend? Like we're told roads policing is on the increase.

Uh, and we've been told that for a long time, but it's not happening quickly enough, and it'll never happen quickly enough.

We'll never have enough Gardai for every road or for every street, and that's, I know it's an impossibility.

But we need to give the, the Gardai the tools that they need.

Like, we know what the problems are.

We know of behaviors killing people.

We know the speed, mobile phone use, drink, drug driving, fatigue, not wearing seat belts.