A 26-year veteran of the force, he was the third officer in the space of a week to be hit by a vehicle in the course of his duties.
Paying tribute, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said the 49-year-old’s death showed the need for society to undertake a “real reset and rethink” about road safety. Few road users, be they motorists, cyclists, pedestrians or the men and women in charge of enforcing the rules of the road, would disagree.
The death of a garda in these circumstances is particularly alarming. Bad behaviour on the road is a common sight, from running red lights to breaking the speed limit to straying across lanes while looking at a phone screen. Rules are flouted when drivers think they are not being watched.
What is out of the ordinary in this case is that here was a garda attempting to flag down a motorist.
Gda Flatley died trying to make the roads safer for the rest of us. (The driver of the motorbike was last night in hospital with life-threatening injuries).
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris pays tribute to the tragic death of Garda Kevin Flatley
A garda inquiry into exactly what happened at that checkpoint near Swords is under way, but what is clear is that the overall trend in road deaths in recent years is upwards. The total for last year was 174, down 10 on 2023 but a third higher than the record low of 136 in 2021. Those figures represent an unimaginable loss for each victim, their families and their communities.
Only last week we were reminded of the heartbreaking case of Kiea McCann (17) and Dlava Mohamed (16) during the sentencing of the speeding driver responsible for their deaths on the way to their debs.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin yesterday appeared to agree with Commissioner Harris’s call for a road safety reset, referring to “an obligation to protect the members of An Garda Síochána as they carry out their duties, to do everything that we possibly can to ensure a safe environment”. He is correct to say so, as the gardaí mourning Gda Flatley’s death will attest.
His loss is one of many reasons for a road safety reset, as the commissioner would acknowledge, as he also referred to “excessive speed, drink-driving, distraction, not wearing seat belts – all these things… regularly killing people on our roads”.
What matters now is action to follow those words. Road safety has come on in leaps and bounds since the worst year for deaths on our roads, when 640 lives were lost in 1972. That improvement is down to safety campaigns, enforcement, better roads and safer vehicles. And, of course, better driving. It seems that there is room for improvement on all these fronts.
Mr Martin referred to greater use of technology, presumably for enforcement. The Road Safety Authority also plans to offer speed awareness courses as an alternative to penalty points, as happens in the UK.
Sadly, all this, as the Taoiseach noted, will be of scant consolation to Gda Flatley’s grieving widow and two young daughters.
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