A road safety message from Sunshine 106.8.
Road safety usually gets talked about from behind the wheel, but plenty of it happens on foot too — and increasingly, that means talking about phones and headphones as a pedestrian, not just as a driver.
Crossing a road while scrolling, or with music loud enough in your ears to block out approaching traffic, removes two of the main tools your body naturally uses to judge whether it's safe to cross: your eyes, fully on the road rather than a screen, and your hearing, picking up an engine or a horn before you've even turned to look. Neither tool is perfect on its own, but losing both at the same time, right at the kerb, is exactly the moment vulnerability is highest.
This isn't about blaming pedestrians for collisions that are, overwhelmingly, still about driver behaviour and speed. It's about recognising that everyone sharing the road — on foot, on a bike, behind the wheel — has a genuine part to play in looking out for themselves and each other, and that a driver doing everything right can still be let down by a pedestrian who steps out without looking, just as a careful pedestrian can be let down by a distracted driver. Both things are true at once, and neither one cancels the other out.
The practical habit is a simple one: take the headphones out, or turn them down, and look up from the phone, for the few seconds it takes to actually cross a road. It costs almost nothing in time. It gives you back your two best tools for judging whether it's genuinely safe to go — your eyes and your ears — at exactly the moment they matter most. It's a habit that takes no real effort to build, and it applies just as much to a quiet suburban street as a busy junction in town, where the consequences of getting it wrong are highest, and where a driver may have far less time to react than you'd expect, however carefully they themselves are driving.
A road safety message from Sunshine 106.8, funded by the news reporting scheme.
Gaeilge
Teachtaireacht um shábháilteacht ar bhóithre ó Sunshine 106.8.
De ghnáth pléitear sábháilteacht ar bhóithre ó thaobh an rotha stiúrtha, ach tarlaíonn go leor de de shiúl cos freisin — agus, i líon atá ag méadú, ciallaíonn sé sin caint faoi fhóin agus chluasáin mar choisí, ní hamháin mar thiománaí.
Bóthar a thrasnú agus tú ag scrollú, nó ceol ard go leor i do chluasa chun trácht ag teacht a bhac amach, baineann sé sin dhá cheann de na huirlisí is mó a úsáideann do chorp go nádúrtha chun a bhreithniú an bhfuil sé sábháilte trasnú: do shúile, go hiomlán ar an mbóthar seachas ar scáileán, agus do chluasa, ag brath ar inneall nó adharc sula mbreathnaíonn tú fiú. Níl ceachtar uirlis foirfe leis féin, ach caillteanas an dá cheann ag an am céanna, díreach ag an gciumhais, is é sin go díreach an nóiméad ina bhfuil an tsoghonacht is airde.
Ní faoi mhilleán a chur ar choisithe as imbhuailtí atá seo, imbhuailtí atá, an chuid is mó, fós faoi iompar tiománaí agus luas. Is faoi aithint atá sé go bhfuil páirt fhíor le himirt ag gach duine a roinneann an bóthar — de shiúl cos, ar rothar, taobh thiar den roth — féachaint amach dóibh féin agus dá chéile, agus go bhféadfadh tiománaí atá ag déanamh gach rud i gceart a bheith fós leigheasta síos ag coisí a chéimníonn amach gan breathnú, díreach mar a d'fhéadfadh coisí cúramach a bheith leigheasta síos ag tiománaí aird-tharraingthe. Tá an dá rud fíor ag an am céanna, agus ní chealaíonn ceachtar acu an ceann eile.
Is nós praiticiúil simplí é: bain amach na cluasáin, nó ísligh iad, agus breathnaigh suas ón bhfón, ar feadh na cúpla soicind a thógann sé bóthar a thrasnú i ndáiríre. Ní chosnaíonn sé beagnach faic am. Tugann sé ar ais duit do dhá uirlis is fearr chun a bhreithniú an bhfuil sé sábháilte i ndáiríre dul ar aghaidh — do shúile agus do chluasa — go díreach ag an nóiméad is mó a bhfuil siad ag teastáil. Is nós é nach dteastaíonn mórán iarrachta chun é a chothú, agus baineann sé díreach an oiread céanna le sráid chiúin bhruachbhailteach agus le hacomhal gnóthach sa bhaile mór, áit a bhfuil iarmhairtí a bheith mícheart is airde, agus áit b'fhéidir nach mbeadh an oiread ama céanna ag tiománaí freagairt agus a shílfeá, dá chúramaí is atá sé/sí féin ag tiomáint.
Teachtaireacht um shábháilteacht ar bhóithre ó Sunshine 106.8, arna maoiniú ag an Scéim Tuairiscithe Nuachta.