Safety seminar for foreigners

SUCCESS Section of the attendance at Road Safety Information evening for Foreign Nationals which was held in the TF Royal Hotel and Theatre Castlebar.

Pic: Michael Donnelly

Safety seminar for foreign nationals ‘a huge success’

Anton McNulty

A MAJOR awareness conference designed to educate foreign nationals on road safety issues, which took place in Castlebar last week, was considered such a success that other counties have shown an interest in staging similar conferences.

The ‘Safety Through Knowledge’ conference, which was the first of its kind, was organised by Chartered Translators Ireland and addressed all road safety issues in a way which would help foreign people to become aware of road safety and the consequences arising from breaches of the law. Over 160 people of many different nationalities attended the conference, which was staged in the TF Royal Hotel on Friday, December 14.

Mr Gintarius Petkus of Chartered Translators Ireland, organiser of the event, told The Mayo News that there was great interest from the audience in what the speakers had to say and it was a learning curve for many of them. He thanked Superintendent Eugene Brennan for helping to facilitate the conference and all the speakers and sponsors for their support.

“It was a very successful evening and I would be glad to repeat the seminar next year because of the interest in it. Perhaps when the new alcohol limits kick in next March, because it will be a very important message to get out there that even half a glass of beer will disqualify you. It will also be repeated in other counties if they are interested and I believe they are interested in the concept,” he said.

Gardaí from Castlebar station were on hand to explain the rules of the road and the consequences for people if they get caught. They also explained that there are four Foreign Relations Liaison Officers in Castlebar and they encouraged people to talk to them.

Among the other participants who spoke were Mr Noel Gibbons, Road Safety Officer with Mayo Councty Council, Mr Edmund Barrett of Casey’s Autoworld, Mr David McDermott of Hastings Insurance and Cllr Michael Kilcoyne, Vice-chairperson of the Consumer Association of Ireland.

“The messages from the speakers were very important and to the point and participants were asking questions during the seminar and particularly after the seminar. The whole trouble is that people are not informed and they were very surprised to find that most home insurance is not valid in this country longer than three months. A lot of people bought insurance in their own country thinking it was valid for all EU countries but did not know it becomes void when they become residents in another country. If they have a claim it might not be accepted by the home insurer and they would be in trouble,” said Mr Petkus.

He explained that many insurance companies are also unwilling to deal with no claims bonus letters from foreign insurance brokers because of fraudulent claims by foreign nationals in the past. He said that because of this many non-nationals have to pay up to €3,500 for car insurance, which is 18 per cent of their annual income, and many were not willing to make the investment. He said foreign nationals who have their letters rejected should contact his group who will have the letters translated and authorised instead of taking the risk of driving with no insurance.