Man spotted shaving on the main road to Belfast: MLA

“You talk about road safety, and you see sometimes, ladies doing their make-up and men shaving, actually, on the motorway surprisingly.

“So, I think, something definitely needs to be done in terms of getting the message right and improving road safety but the onus is on all of us, I think, to certainly be careful,” he remarked.

The local MLA made the comments after travelling up the road to a meeting of the Stormont Environment Committee at, which members were provided with some stark details by the Minister Mark H. Durkan.

“This year, so far, sadly, we have had 57 fatalities on our roads. That is fewer than at this time last year,” said Mr Durkan.

“However, it is still, in my opinion, 57 too many. We have been working hard to reduce the number of fatalities.

“What is interesting in this year’s statistics - I hate referring to it as ‘statistics’, because every one of that 57 is one life lost and one family or community devastated,” he added.

Whilst the Minister did not refer to the problem of personal grooming while driving, he said drink, drugs and mobile phone use are specific problems.

He said these will be targeted by ongoing road safety campaigns.

“Just this week, I signed off on new road safety campaigns. We are going down the social media route more, as well.

“It is important that we use the technology and other media that are available to us - not instead of television, because it is proven that television is the most effective means, but as well as classic TV advertising.

“Over the next couple of months, we will roll out campaigns through social media. “There is one on drink-driving that can be reused next year when the new drink-driving limit comes in, as hopefully it will, if the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill goes through. However, the focus of it will be that the only safe level of drink that you can have when driving is none.

“There will also be one on mobile phone usage by drivers.

“That is an issue which, I believe, there has not been enough focus on in the past. “It is certainly something that I am looking at.

“However, in terms of the alarmingly high levels of fatalities, alcohol still plays a major role.

“It is vital that we maintain our efforts to drive down the number of people who drive while impaired by alcohol and drugs,” the Environment Minister said.