Child road deaths in Ireland down 80% since 1997
And 33% of children killed in crashes ‘not wearing belts’
The number of children killed on Ireland’s roads has fallen by almost 80% since 1997, according to the Road Safety Authority (RSA).
However, almost one-third of child passengers killed during the period were not wearing a seat belt or child restraint, the authority said.
In this latest research, the authority compiled detailed statistics on the number of boys and girls under 14 killed or injured on the roads, as passengers or pedestrians, since 1997.
By the end of last year, 258 children had been killed on the roads and more than 1,000 seriously injured since 1997.
While a complete set of statistics is available only up to 2010, mostly because of the time lag in completing coroners’ hearings, six children died on the roads in 2011, the same number killed in 2010.
That is half the number who died in 2009, when 12 children were killed. The worst year for road deaths over the period was 1998, when 34 children were killed.
More than 40 per cent of children killed or seriously injured on the roads were passengers in cars. Of those who were killed, one in three was not in a car seat or wearing a belt or child restraint.
The highest number of deaths was among pedestrians. Between 1997 and 2010, 109 child pedestrians died 93 car passengers and 33 child cyclists.
Almost 60 per cent of those killed were boys. Slightly more girls than boys were killed in cars – 48 compared to 45.
More than 70 boys were killed while walking or playing on the roads – twice the number of girls who died this way.
While more girls than boys died in cars, boys accounted for 60 per cent of all children who were not wearing a seat belt or using a car seat when they died.
RSA chief executive Noel Brett said that while legislation requiring children be appropriately restrained had contributed to the reduction in deaths, the biggest factor was parental behaviour and attitudes.
It was essential that a good attitude was maintained as children returned to school, he said. “While we welcome the reduction in deaths and fatalities, the number of children killed on the roads is still catastrophic.”
‘Buyers of sex in Ireland’ It’s a middle class and married trait’
Sr Stanislaus Kennedy of Focus Ireland, Liam Doran of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, John Cunningham and Denise Charlton, the Immigrant Council of Ireland, and Sheila Dickson, past president of the INMO, calling for the outlawing of the purchase of sex, outside Leinster House yesterday.
Paying of sex in Ireland tends to be a middle class thing with married men of means. Making it illegal to buy sex will deter them, the head of women’s charity Ruhama has said.
Sarah Benson, chief executive of Ruhama, one of 56 organisations at Leinster House yesterday to promote the Turn Off the Red Light campaign, said criminalising the act of paying for sex would make it far more difficult for pimps and traffickers to continue exploiting women.
“Sex buyers on the whole tend to be individuals of means, they are more likely to be middle class, the majority will be married,” she said. “If demand drops, the size of the trade drops and the incentive to organised criminals who traffic women drops too.”
The 56 groups, which claim a combined membership of 1.6 million people, have called for the purchase of sex to be criminalised.
Yesterday, they sent a submission to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice calling for the introduction of legislation to tackle the issue.
Those who have joined the campaign include organisations such as Barnardos, Women’s Aid, the Rape Crisis Network Ireland and migrant women’s group AkiDwa as well as the Irish Girl Guides, Macra na Feirme, the Dominican Justice Office and the Irish Medical Organisation.
Their submission called for legislation to criminalise the purchase of sex along the lines of laws introduced in Sweden.
Some 1,000 women are offered for sex daily through the internet in Ireland and 90 per cent of women in prostitution want to exit but feel unable to do so, the submission said. It recommended the change in legislation be complemented by “enhanced and sustained support” services for people who wish to exit.
John Cunningham, chairman of the Immigrant Council of Ireland, said if the country does not change its laws on prostitution “it could very easily become the red light centre of Europe”.
Mr Cunningham said women as young as 14 are being trafficked into Ireland. “We have some horrific stories of people arriving here under false pretences, being brought to the Irish Financial Services Centre, gang-raped and put in a brothel down the country.” He said research showed “a fully functioning prostitute” could generate €240,000 a year for criminal gangs, making it a “huge” industry.
“We need to shift those antiquated ideas about it being the oldest trade in history and it being an issue of choice,” he said. “We know it’s not about choice, it’s about abuse and inequality.”
The closing date for submissions to the justice committee is the end of this month.
To avoid ‘unlucky number 13’
2013 Irish registration number plates are to have 132 instead
THE Government is to bring in a new licence-plate system next year amid fears that a ’13′ registration number would hit car sales.
Cars registered between January and the end of June will have a ’131′ registration. Those from July 1 to the end of the year will have ’132′ on the plate.
The decision is based partly on fears that superstition about a ’13′ reg would affect sales and partly in response to the motor industry’s plea to spread sales more evenly across the year.
Up to now, there has been a glut of sales every January to March/April and then a virtual trickle of purchases for the rest of the year. This puts huge financial pressure on dealerships as cash flow dries up.
By having a July registration, it is hoped that the sales bulge will be spread out over the year and possibly give a mid-summer lift to buying.
A bi-annual system is used in Britain.
Superstition over the so-called “unlucky 13″ is one of the reasons that the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) has been consulting with the Government.
However, it is not the only reason for the proposal, according to SIMI director general Alan Nolan.
Simi’s request for the switchover is more pragmatic. A two-tiered licence plate system would give a more accurate depiction of when a new car was made, said Mr Nolan.
Superstition: Even though 70pc of new cars are bought during the first four months of the year, some consumers believe that it doesn’t accurately reflect the real age of a new car since cars bought in January are obviously manufactured the previous year while those bought later in the year are actually made in the same year, he said.
Although the current system, which lists the age and place of registration of the car, provides “quick visual recognition”, it is believed that consumers — and the motor industry — will gain under the bi-annual plate system, said Mr Nolan.
Superstition over the number 13 could also have a serious impact on the sale of new cars by owners who fear it will bring about back luck or accidents, he added.
A government spokesman confirmed that the Department of Finance was actively considering the proposed change as part of a consultation process with the motor industry.
But the spokesman declined to comment because this is an issue that may arise in December’s Budget.
Orangutans get to grips with iPads at Toronto Zoo
Toronto Zoo has become the first zoo in Canada to give iPads to its Orangutans.
THERE’S AN APE FOR THAT AND A APP FOR THIS?
There’s an ape for that… Toronto Zoo has become the first zoo in Canada to give iPads to its orangutans.
The program, nicknamed ‘Apps for Apes’, aims to stimulate the primates. An anonymous donor gave the iPads to the zoo in March.
They have even began Skyping their primate cousins at the Milwaukee County Zoo.
A number of zoos have introduced iPads for orangutans, with the apes responding well to the touchscreen.
Each orangutan gets 15 minutes on an iPad twice a week.
While the past year has seen us focus on Toronto’s great concert events, this weekend we turn our lens toward a cause close to our hearts – the critically endangered orangutan.Orangutan Awareness Weekend kicks off at the Toronto Zoo today and aims to not only bring attention to the welfare of the great apes in captivity, but also the plight of the ever decreasing population of wild orangutans, whose natural habitat is dangerously threatened by commercial agriculture.
45 year old Sumatran orangutan Puppe and her six year old son Budi were on hand at the zoo’s Indo-Malayan exhibit, and along with keeper Matthew Berridge, gave an update on their progress with the “Apps for Apes” program. Introduced earlier this year as an additional way to stimulate the minds of the highly intelligent creatures, “Apps for Apes” has Puppe and Budi not only finger painting and “Skyping” with friends on the Ipad, but also learning match games and skills that may help them communicate their needs and wants in the not so distant future. Come out and meet the orangutans and their keeper who will be on hand answering questions daily at 1 pm.
Helium-huffing gibbons ‘sing with a soprano technique’ Japanese studies find
The gibbons were tested using an atmosphere containing 50% helium with oxygen and nitrogen
Researchers in Japan have discovered that lar gibbons use the same techniques as human soprano singers to make their melodic but piercing calls.
When the apes made calls while in an atmosphere rich in helium, the team analysed the calls’ frequencies.
As the team report in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, the apes were able to control the natural frequencies of their “vocal tracts”.
Such control, exemplified by sopranos, was thought to be unique to humans.
We share a great deal of the biological equipment of sound production with apes. That includes first of all the “source” – the vocal folds that humans and many animals share.
There is also the “vocal tract” – everything upwards of the larynx along with the mouth, which are well known in humans to shape sung notes and subtle vowel sounds.
In humans the vocal tract acts as a filter on the sound from the source, and the “source-filter theory” held that the separate, fine control of the vocal tract to be the product of a long evolution in the development of the subtleties of speech.
Singing too has evolved, and soprano singers reach their piercing high notes by precisely controlling the shape of their vocal tract to match its natural, resonant frequency with multiples of the one being produced by their vocal folds.
Now Takeshi Nishimura of Kyoto University’s Primate Research Institute and his colleagues have tested whether lar gibbons (also known as white-handed gibbons, Hylobates lar) have this same separate control – by using helium.
As anyone who has breathed helium knows, its presence raises the pitch of the voice. It increases the natural resonant frequency in the vocal tract because the speed of sound in helium is very different from that in air.
That shift allowed the team to record calls in helium and examine separately the sounds of gibbons’ “pure-tone” vocalisations from the vocal folds as well as how they were modified in the vocal tract.
Detailed analyses of the frequencies produced showed that the gibbons modified their vocal tracts to match multiples of the vocal folds’ frequencies – just like soprano singers.
Dr Nishimura told BBC News the findings were significant – not only that the “source-filter theory” was not the preserve of human physiology, but also that the gibbons had mastered techniques that in humans were only found in professional singers.
He explained that it upended a long history of research suggesting the control humans enjoy is the product of a long line of physiological and anatomical changes under the influence of evolution.
“The present study challenges that concept and throws new insight into the studies on biological foundations producing the diversifications in primate vocalisations, including human speech,” he said.
“It is hoped that this study will encourage researchers in various research fields to conduct further investigations of primate vocalisations and that such empirical evidence will lead to a deeper understanding of the evolution of speech and language.”
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