Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE ROAD SAFETY Authority (RSA) and gardaí are urging people not to drink and drive ahead of the New Year celebrations, as figures show there has been an extra 25 deaths on the roads this year compared to 2015.
In total, 187 people have died on Irish roads so far in 2016. This is an increase of 15% on last year.
Minister for Transport Shane Ross said the government is “determined to do all it can to reverse the increase in road casualties witnessed this year”.
Since Christmas and New Year, an anti-drink driving campaign was launched by gardaí and the RSA at the beginning of December, there has been 738 people arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence.
This is a 34% increase on the 549 arrested for the same offence during December 2015.
There was a total of 46 drivers arrested on suspicion of drink driving on New Year’s Day 2016, and the gardaí are reminding every driver to be safe over the next few days.
Assistant Commissioner Michael Finn said: “Tragically, there has been two fatalities over the past seven days, a motorcyclist on Christmas day and a driver on St Stephen’s Day. In addition there were 14 drivers arrested on suspicion of intoxicated driving on Christmas Day.
After all the appeals and media focus on this area, it is bitterly disappointing that some drivers took that risk with their and others lives, when they should have been enjoying the day with friends and family.
“We again appeal to drivers to be responsible and to never, ever drink and drive.”
Minister Ross added that the new Road Traffic Act 2016, recently signed into law, would introduce a series of reforms that will go some way to improving road safety in the coming years.
This includes new measures to deal with drug driving, uninsured drivers and a new optional 20km/hr speed limit in built-up areas.
RSA Chairperson Liz O’Donnell said: “The new Road Traffic Act 2016 and the implementation of its life saving measures will also be hugely important to reversing the upward trend.
“However, this does not absolve individuals from their need to take greater personal responsibility for their actions when using the road.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
How many people have been killed on the three lane carriageway at Lucan Spa hotel? I’d guess none. However, this is where you will find speed vans churning out fines. These speed vans need to be deployed in areas that are renowned for being accident prone. Until then we can continue to pretend that we are serious about reducing the number of road deaths.
@Ciarán McPhillips: Yeah Ciaran and they’re often deployed on main roads into major towns with ridiculously low speed limits, you could go over the speed limit almost by accident, but there is so much more money to be made this way because entries into major towns bring much more traffic.
Has anyone else noticed the amount of people that aren’t capable of driving over 50km in the dark? They create some amount of tailbacks which in turn causes frustration and leads to other weak drivers making dangerous overtaking manoeuvres.
FACT CHECK please journal, how much revenue was raised by the deployment of speed camera’s and fines for no tax in 2016/15/14
It must also be noted that there are a lot more than 25 people on the road this year compared with last year.
A number on its own means nothing unless it’s compared to the original number of opportunities. An increase of 25 deaths might actually be a reduction in the overall scheme of things. How many more road users are there in 2016? An increase in economy, more people back to work. Probably a correlation there between numbers on the live register and roads deaths. Sharks love ice cream.
Indeed, comparing the figure to the year before is meaningless unless the total number of km travelled is known (deaths per million km). Comparing total road deaths to last year’s figure in press releases gives the impression that the authorities don’t have no real plan for improving road safety other than shouting “careful now”. (I presume that they do, but they make themselves look stupid with this rubbish). PS: the totals are real people, take your driving seriously, because others’ lives are depending on you doing that.
Evey death on our roads is one too many. But According to the rsa website there’s 20% more cars on the road this year than lasts Year and 15% more deaths. We are still going in the right direction.
I would genuinely be interested to see a breakdown of how many of the deaths were due to drink driving.. or how many were due to speed and careless driving. When someone dies on the road it seems it all gets hushed up to protect the families. Which I understand, but how will the next generation of drivers learn anything, they think they are invincible on the Rd.
Having lost my father in an accident, I started researching the figures.. and discovered of the 2 billion road journey made, the figures of risk analysis are so infintesimal they don’t even compute. Whats more any rises and falls are more to do with mathematical phenomena such as the Fibonachi scale.. So at this level the RSA and Gards could never legislate risk out of the equation.. Out of curiosity, they say half road death stats are pedestrian related, 24% related to speed, 0.8% due to mechanical failure, and again half is mentioned as single vehicle, which could be suicide more likely.. So in a sense they do appear equally confused and obviously powerless if truth be known.
It’s getting worse on roads. Alot of idiots driving, witnessed twice drivers cutting off cyclists trying to run them off the road.
@prop joe: One statistic that should be constantly highlighted which isn’t is that those aged 25 and under have the highest number of deaths on our roads every year.
How the hell does a cyclist run a car off the road?
Jay, read his comment again, slowly.
Jay Coleman A dangerous cyclist may be the cause of a motorist swerve to avoid one collision resulting in the cause another.
You can plead all you like to people better nature but at the end of the day it all comes down to enforcement. It’s very simple more guards on the roads less deaths on the roads.
I agree. I advocate increased use of rolling patrols on all types of roads. Rolling patrols show better results than checkpoints.
I agree also, possibly checkpoints are preferred because they raise more revenue.
@Paulo – the Garda use a “campaign” based enforcement system. Good press coverage. If the same intense enforcement was done other than in campaigns, without publicity, I’d bet they’d achieve higher results.
Maybe we should look at the state of our roads.. They are in a very bad condition all thanks to this government handing over our car tax to Irish water in order to keep up with their bonuses.
But isn’t the government spending millions deploying camera vans now? It’s safe to say they do not work and are nothing more than a money making scheme for the private companies that own them.
If you drive and you’re serious about road safety I seriously recommend you take some time out a read the complete breakdown of these figures as provided by the RSA. For example. How many victims were pedestrian? How many were wearing high vis? How many were familiar with the area they were walking in? What date and time? Some of the answers may suprise you and the more you are aware, the better.
Hey,
The aggressive, self centred, out of my way attitude that seems to have taken over our roads needs to change and the traffic corp needs to be that “in traffic” not hiding up some slip road or gate picking off one at a time and getting in a high speed chase occasionally. Education is key. The traffic corp need to educate before punishment. Advise before issuing points. We all react to rushing ambulance. Why? Because it’s visible.
One of the best ideas I saw was traffic lights in the middle of nowhere that stop speeding traffic. Basically if you go over the speed limit the lights up ahead turn red stopping everyone for a few seconds before turning green and allowing you on your journey. So when everyone drives safely the traffic is allowed to continue.
Please drive with cop on for 2017!
@Martin Stapleton: Although I agree with your comment I’d be afraid of never getting anywhere. Count the number of vehicles that overtake you when you stick to the speed limit. It’s incredible.
There is a vastly more likely chance of you being killed in a car crash than being killed in a terrorist attack. Where is the mass hysteria over this?
Speed vans monitor speed … not driver behaviour .. therefore you pay a penalty if you’re a few km over but not if you can’t actually drive. Also… maybe a little more motorway infrastructure ( hint … Limerick Cork ) might go a long way to reducing accidents!
@Damien Cahill: there needs to be more street lights up on highways
I wonder how many of these road deaths were elderly pedestrians or cyclists. There needs to be a campaign to warn people venturing out on our roads to wear high visability clothing.
And judges allowing the poor box and letting dangerous drivers off the hook!
The good aul speed camera vans was Berties mate who won the contract again Dempsey was minister for transport at the time,Seemingly the company operating the vans have done a greyhound recycling and registered the company in the Isle of Man.
In England there are 7 people a day die on the roads!
@Linda Hughes: in England,there are a lot more people,a lot more roads too
Has it been mostly on country roads?
There is a serious lack of street lights on highways and main roads outside of Dublin. For such a small country there really is no excuse.
Even one death is too much, 187 died on the roads in 2016 up 15% on last year, traffic on our roads this year is away higher that previous years, yet these figures pale into insignificance compared to suicides and yet there is no talk of this, one parish in the north of Cork city had 70 deaths in “tragic circumstances” in the first 10 months of 2016, can only imagine what the overall figures are, drive safely and have a happy new year everybody.
have your say