Donegal’s Road Safety Officer has pleaded with adults not to sell clapped-out cars to teenagers to save lives.
Brian O’Donnell said he fully supported the Gardai in their efforts to get so-called ‘company cars’ off Donegal’s roads.
His plea comes after Gardai revealed they have seized 263 cars so far this year up to May 4th, an average of 15 cars each week.
Many of the vehicles are ‘company cars’ which have serious defects and which often go uninsured by their new owners after being bought for a couple of hundred euro.
Mr O’Donnell pleaded with adults not to sell such cars to teens just to get them out of their driveways.
He said “These adults have a duty of care to young people not to sell them these cares under any circumstances.
“If they are selling them cheaply then they know deep down that they are not fully roadworthy.
“They are literally selling these death traps to teenagers just to get them out of their driveways and off their hands,” he said.
He said that he fully supported the Garda clampdown and warned that with school coming to an end for the summer holidays, there could be a spike in such cars being sold to teenagers.
“I have spoken to teachers about it and they are fully aware of it. I fear that with the school year ending teenagers will be looking for such runarounds.
“I am pleading with adults not to sell these cars to young people. If there is an accident then they are partly responsible.
“We need to put an end to this practice and to put these defective cars off our roads once and for all,” he said.
