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THERE WAS A 4% increase in the number of people who died on Irish roads in 2019 and a 45% increase in driver deaths, according to provisional figures.
A total of 148 people died on Irish roads in 2019 – compared to 142 in 2018 – a 4% rise. 2018 was the safest recorded year on Irish roads.
Up to 1pm on New Year’s Eve, 148 people had died as a result of 137 fatal crashes, compared to 142 deaths in 135 fatal crashes the previous year.
The figures were published by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) following an analysis of provisional fatal collision reports by An Garda Síochána.
Casualty figures for 2019 show that there has been an increase in the number of drivers killed, up 25 or 45%, compared to 2018. There has been a decrease in pedestrian deaths, down 15 or 36%, and passenger deaths, down four or 20%.
While there was one more motorcyclist death recorded in 2019 compared to 2018 (16 versus 15), an overall analysis of ‘vulnerable road user’ casualties shows that there was a 23% reduction in such fatalities.
Dublin and Cork had the highest number of fatalities for all road users – 19 and 16 respectively. Sunday (32) was the most dangerous day of the week in terms of road deaths in 2019, followed by Thursday (25) and Friday (26).
Over half of fatalities in 2019 occurred on a Thursday, Friday or Sunday (56%). Eight in 10 (81%) of fatalities that occurred on Fridays were between 6am and 6pm.
One-third (34%) of fatalities that occurred on Sundays were between 7pm and 11pm while 28% were between midnight and 6am; 68% of fatalities that occurred on Thursdays were between 9am and 7pm.
Assistant Garda Commissioner Dave Sheehan said that “two significant developments will happen” in 2020 to “ensure that high levels of visible, effective road safety enforcement is achieved”.
An additional 180 gardaí have been selected to be assigned to roads policing duties early this year. Secondly, the roll-out of a new mobility app will be stepped up so that by the end of 2020 there will be over 4,000 devices in the hands of frontline gardaí.
“The new mobility app will revolutionise the way roads policing is carried out in this country. Both additional front line Garda resources and the greater enforcement capability of the mobility app will increase enforcement activity and help in reversing this year’s increase and achieving the road safety target,” Sheehan said.
‘Deeply saddening’
Liz O’Donnell, Chairperson of the RSA, stated that “after recording the safest year on our roads in 2018, it is deeply saddening that not only have we lost 148 lives on the road in 2019, but that it represents an increase in road deaths”.
“Rather than being disheartened it should spur us and our road safety partners into renewed effort,” O’Donnell said.
She noted that 2020 is also the final year of the government’s eight-year road safety strategy, adding that its primary target is to reduce deaths to 124 or fewer by the end of 2020.
“Deeper collaboration between all agencies responsible for road safety is already taking place to ensure everything that can be done is being done, not only to reverse the increase in deaths this year, but to achieve the strategy target.
“And it is a target that is very achievable, put simply it means saving two more lives a month, every month,” O’Donnell said.
Commenting on the figures, Transport Minister Shane Ross expressed his “deepest condolences” to the families who died on Irish roads in 2019, as well as “the many hundreds who have suffered serious injury”.
“The only way to respond to these needless deaths and injuries on our roads is through action not words. While families and friends grieve the loss of their loved one, we must as a society all respond with deeds, to prevent it happening to others,” Ross said.
He added that as well as government action, individual road users “need to take greater responsibility for our actions when using the road”.
Ross said people can do this “by slowing down, not driving while impaired through drink, drugs or fatigue, by not driving while using a phone, by wearing a seatbelt and always sharing the road more carefully with pedestrians and cyclists”.
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So, have the government started stealing your babies yet, or were Waters, Quinn and O’Brien wrong again?
Course they were wrong, sure any sane person knew they were talking out their backsides
No they are too busy enforcing the mandatory abortions from the abortion legislation to get around to stealing the babies
The legislation hasn’t been put in place yet. The referendum was passed but nothing in the constitution has changed yet.
To be fair, the anti-referendum campaign could also ask whether the Irish state’s protection of children has improved. A third alternative is that it was a big pointless vanity project.
Can we insist on the High Court awarding costs against this petitioner as this was a gross insult to jurisprudence as the woman produced no evidence to support her claim.
Read the article again Richie and you might understand it. Are you suggesting that only those with a 100% chance of winning their case should approach the courts? Sounds very elitist to me an attempt to limit peoples rights to avail of court services.
Whistleblowing will be the problem.
Remind me, did the govt ministers who sanctioned the ultra vires booklet pay the costs in the mccrystal case or pay back the public money wasted on the booklet?
What an absolute waste of court time, the judge should have jailed her for contempt.
Oh yes of course because she is wrong? The yes vote was pushed more then the no vote and the government don’t give a dame children in Ireland don’t have a voice and never ever will.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=I0OiNdj2aP4 , “There is no system ever devised by mankind that is guaranteed to rip husband and wife or father, mother and child apart so bitterly than our present Family Court System.” Judge Brian Lindsay, Retired Supreme Court Judge
Oh Rosemary!
So onto the Supreme Court?
Doesn’t seem justice was servered as supreme court had previously ruled the campaign was baised and unfair.
The High Court appear to say any referendum campain run by the Government of the day can indeed be biast and unfair as long as being biast and unfair does not have an affect on the result. This appears to overule the McKenna judgment.
However the Supreme Court says the Government campin on the childrens referendum was biast and unfair but did not make a judgment on if being biast and unfair had an affect on the result.
So I guess we will never know unless this decision is appealed to the Supreme Court.
More to the point when are FG and labour going to pay back the €2 million of tax payers money they misused during the referendum?
Kerry
I think you may find that the Government cannot be equated to a Political Party or Parties in terms of any errors it may have committed in their day to day roles. On the basis of your logic we should also ask the Roman Catholic Church for a contribution as well since most of the Members of Government were also of that faith and sure why not include the GAA while we’re at it!
Given that the above is apparently good legal advice will you now give it a rest Kerry?
2 government parties were found to have misused Irish tax payers money in a referendum. I tell you what Richie when they pay that money back I’ll give it a rest. How about a bit of accountability from Enda and Eamon?
Tom is quite right, the government are in the wrong-they always are!
have your say