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WITH JUST UNDER a week left in 2014, 10 more people have died on Irish roads than in 2013.
This year to date there have been 195 road fatalities, with AA Roadwatch reporting on a total of 1,570 crashes.
It’s the second successive year that there’s been an increase in road deaths.
“The worst part of our job in Roadwatch is reporting on traffic collisions,” AA Roadwatch editor Arwen Foley said as the service published its figures for the year.
It never gets easier hearing about a car on its roof or taking a call from the gardai who are dealing with another fatal crash, this time of year especially. All we can do is warn motorists to take care and hope they listen.
AA Roadwatch says that, of the 1,570 crashes it reported on from January to the start of December, 577 were in Dublin and 228 were in Cork. The third worst county for traffic collisions was Kildare with 117 while roads in Leitrim has the fewest crashes with only five crashes reported to AA Roadwatch.
Dublin was also the busies for flooding reports with AA Roadwatch warning motorists about 77 flooded roads in Dublin and 51 in Cork.
Back of a truck
AA Roadwatch says that loose pigs, dogs, horses and swans have all affected traffic at some point this year. In November, an overturned truck left pigs “all over the road” near the Barack Obama Plaza while also that month in Galway motorists were warned to take care on when a truck shed its load of fish parts all over the road.
In terms of live animals, horses are the most likely to cause traffic problems with 41 reported cases in 2014 while even dogs caused disruption 18 reported times this year.
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Every single person has a responsibility on the road,
It makes no difference if you’re a pedestrian, cyclist, motor cyclist, or if you drive a Car ,van lorry or bus…
Take your time ,Slow down and obey the rules of the road…
Unless you’re late for mass of course.
There is more speeding,more anti social behavior,more drink driving, more drivers using mobile phones etc …. Why !!!
Because they know that the chances of being caught is almost nil.
The revenue cameras are positioned in places that are guaranteed to raise funds and it’s not exactly a deterrent to stop someone speeding if they get a fine after the fact.
When was the last time you have seen a checkpoint ?.
I have seen more customs checkpoints than Garda ones.
Don’t get me wrong,I am not having a go at the Garda on the street .
I am having a go at the senior Garda that restrain and divert them.
I have seen traffic corps cars at water meter protests.
Even a Garda sitting in a car reading a paper will slow drivers down or a Garda car driving around with the blue lights on will get drivers to behave.
A patrol car just passing through a pub car park will make drivers think twice.
Garda presence is what we need.
I think there’s too many Gardai everywhere. I’ve been breathalysed in the middle of the day. There are loads of speed cameras. There are loads of checkpoints for tax and insurance.
Do you want police hassling you for NCT and breathalysing you every time you leave your house?
Yes Jack I do actually. If the vehicle hasn’t got a valid NCT or tax then it shouldn’t be on the road and if you have alcohol on then you shouldn’t be on the road either.
If you drive within the limits then the only thing you need worry about is idiots that aren’t.
Garda cars casually speeding on the motorway with no lights or sirens doesn’t give the best example to the rest of us.
Well I don’t want a nanny state or police state.
Police should be solving crimes and keeping the peace not badgering people over nanny state NCT regulations.
Driving within the limit inappropriately causes more crashes than excessive speed.
You can drive past a ‘GoSafe’ van in a car with 4 bald tyres, no brakes, no insurance, off your face on vodka, speed and LSD with a boot full of explosives and as long as you are going under the speed limit….you’re safe?
Great comment.
Safe driving is a complex thing, made up of many variable factors.
The authorities should be measuring what’s important, not making important what they can measure.
You can’t measure safe driving in kilometres per hour.
No Frank, more education for drivers, Irish drivers are pretty rubbish compared to the rest of Europe, no lane discipline, ignorance of changing road conditions, we need more road policing!
100% spot on Gus.
Red thumb all you want amateurs,I’m the one going home safe your the ones that will either be in a bodybag or put some innocent person into one.
Absolutely agree 100%
Lane discipline is a joke here, most drivers will happily sit in the outside lane for their entire journey, regardless of traffic in the inside lanes. Would love to see lane-hoggers try the same thing on an autobahn, driving at 100km/h with vehicles behind closing in at 180+km/h on them. Or the fecker that speeds up when they’re been overtaken, lethal. As for the use of indicators on roundabouts, aghh. Drivers in dark with no headlights on or with sidelights and fog-lights. I wonder how many crashes on M50 are down to drivers blindly tailgating the vehicle in front but oblivious to what is happening on the road ahead and around them.
There are more road deaths now then before they started using the Go Safe Vans. They are a joke, they don’t make roads safe, they merely make 50,000 a day in the form of a new speed tax for a private company.
Even yesterday I was surprised at how a small few were driving…what’s your fricking hurry?
Another road death this morning in Co Fermanagh, very sad time of the year to lose anyone, especially after the joy of yesterday, R.I.P
The number of crashes and therefore injuries/fatalities is a function of the volume of traffic on the roads. It’s no coincidence that the instances of collisions reduced during the downturn when traffic volume was falling. Now volumes are increasing, unfortunately increased collisions are inevitable. The job of those in charge is to identify the root cause and not implement knee jerk “solutions”
+1 meaningless to talk about numbers without volume
Maybe if the government focused more on having members of the force out there and visible people would be more careful. Instead they focus on incarceration of learners or whatever theyre called now, driving without a licenced person. They are more concerned with Doing people over road tax or nct than doing anything worthwhile. The roads in this country are a damn disgrace. I narrowly avoided an accident this year due to a road with zero visibilty. And when you call up the council to let them know, they don’t give a rat’s ass and pass the buck. This country loves to pass the buck on everything. Shambles
Those learners without experienced supervision are part of the problem and should be dealt with in a serious way. If you are on a learners permit then you DONT KNOW HOW TO DRIVE YET despite what your ego tells you. If caught out on the road your car should be seized and you should receive a 6 month ban for driving “other than in accordance with the terms of your permit” we love making laws in ireland but when it comes to implementing them we fall far too short of the mark.
Always keep your dips on.
No matter what the weather.
The authorities have an appalling record on implementing road safety.
I’m still driving over broken roads that were never repaired since the bad winters 4 or 5 yrs ago. That’s just unheard of throughout Europe
What’s the bets that the idiot Pascal Donohoe introduces penalty points for sneezing or picking yer nose while driving. It beggars belief that someone sooooo incompetent can find themselves a minister !!!
So dumb he doesn’t realise we have enough – we had enough before his most recent pathetic effort – laws already – try enforcing them – where they need to be enforced. – no point having Gardaí doing speed checks on the M4, M7, M1, or M6 when all the accidents are happening on second and third class roads.
Great. Lets just put more speed cameras at places where accidents are less likely to happen and ignore upgrading improving our third world country roads where most accidents occur.
Road safety needs to start with us having decent roads to start with and not the potholed rubbish that we are expected to negotiate safely, There is no enforcement by Gardai as the dogs on the road know that the traffic corps are nearly non existent, The “Go Safe ” vans are nothing more than cash converters as the so called accident “Blackspots” that they inhabit are mostly made up , An example is the lower Glanmire road in Cork , Inbound towards the city centre near Morans hotel which the Garda say is an accident blackspot for “fatal collisions” There has not been a fatality on that stretch of road in over 26 years but it is a handy spot to make money as the speed limit goes straight from 100 KM PH to 60 KM PH
You can be put off the road here for killing someone while drunk driving and be handed back your licence at the end of your ban , Road safety is a joke in our corrupt little nation.
Why the hell can’t people just slow down? This need’nt be happening.
Speed is a factor in roughly 10% of accidents. Bad driving kills, poorly lit, badly maintained, badly designed roads kill, drink driving kills, not wearing a seatbelt kills, using a phone while driving kills, badly maintained cars kill, Speed does not.
Come back Gaybo, all is forgiven
More go safe camera vans I guess.
Yeah, look at all difference they’ve made so far.
Driving without due care and attention, not leaving a sufficient gap and poor roads kill more people than people going a few mph over some arbitrary, often inappropriate limit but thats all that gets policed. That said excessive habitual speeders should also be put off the roads.
Bad state of the roads probably part of the problem
Road collisions and subsequent injuries and deaths going up in numbers is probably more related to the steady increase in traffic over the last few years as the economy slowly improves. The normal distribution of: number of car miles/trips v’s collisions is probably in or about the same.
Also the focus should not be all on speed, there are lots of other factors that can cause collisions.
have your say