East Derry UUP urges caution on constituency's roads

Mr Robert Carmichael, the East Derry Ulster Unionist Party Association Chairman, has said everyone in the community has a responsibility to keep the constituency’s roads safe, especially with the school holidays approaching and the summer season getting into full swing.

    Speaking in behalf of the UUP Association, Mr Carmichael said: “Across our Province, the roads are claiming victim after victim. Such is the toll of carnage on our roads that we must not become side-tracked by any temptation to point the finger of guilt and indulge in the blame game.

   “The hard fact is that the death rate on our roads is beginning to spiral out of control and it will require a collective effort by the entire community to put an effective end to this carnage. It must be a total end, not a reduction to an acceptable level of death, because all deaths on the roads can be prevented in one way or another.

   “This places a moral responsibility on all of us in the East Londonderry constituency, whether driver, cyclist, motor-cyclist or pedestrian, to do all in our power to combat the carnage on our roads. 

   “The police and other organisations have been to the fore in making appeals for people to exercise greater care on our roads. We, as a community, need to give our full support to these campaigns. 

    “As an Ulster Unionist Association, we also applaud those schools in our constituency which have integrated road safety as part of the curriculum. Indeed, numerous youth organisations have also been instructing their members about the vital importance of care on the roads. 

   “And it is not just the young people who need to fully understand the dangers on the road; adults, too, need to ensure they exercise proper care when using the roads.

   “We should also remember the victims’ families who are left to grieve because of the tragedies of the present carnage on our roads so far in 2025. As a community, we should also not forget the families of road victims in East Londonderry over the generations who still live with the pain and memory of these terrible events.”

   Whilst every death on the road was totally regrettable, Mr Carmichael made an appeal to the local community to really concentrate when they were using the local roads so that East Londonderry never gained the terrible tag of the constituency of carnage."