THE FACT OF THE MATTER
BY PAUL HOPKINS
Ironically, despite the recent rise in traffic fatalities, Ireland remains one of the safest countries in Europe for road use –albeit 52 people having died on Irish roads so far this year, 10 more than for the same period in 2023.
In February more than half of those who died were in their 20s or younger, including a 10-year-old boy from Co Clare and a six-year-old girl from Co Galway. And, as I write, two children and their mother died in Mayo.
Yet, Ireland’s per capita road death rate of 31 lives lost per one million residents – while slightly increasing since 2022 – remains one of the lowest in Europe.
Italy records 54 deaths per one million residents.
Europe’s highest road death rate is recorded by Portugal and Greece, 62 deaths and 61 deaths respectively per one million residents, double Ireland’s number.
However, the Government, the Gardá and the Road Safety Authority (RSA) have all expressed concern at the recent spiral in road deaths here. Speed, drink, drugs and use of mobile phones while driving all play their part. Most accidents with fatal outcomes occur in the small hours of the morning or at weekends. And here we are talking about developing night time economies, centred on clubs and bars and late-night drinking and which, if and when given the go-ahead, will largely attract a young audience.
The 52 deaths in Ireland this year were 20 drivers, 20 passengers, nine pedestrians, two motorcyclists and one bike cyclist.
Despite our low statistics in Europe, even one death on our roads is a needless one. These sudden catastrophes cut short lives, devastating families and local communities, begging the question as to what can be done to stop the carnage which might have been avoided and where the figures for road deaths remain high for us, no matter the European figures. Destroyed lives and lifetimes of heartache know no numbers.
Too often these accidents happen at black spots on local roads. It’s so obvious that work should be carried out to rectify the problem as a matter of urgency or, at the very least, in the short-term warning notices and reduced speed limits should be in place – some places they are, some not so.
A national blackspot remedy programme would make sense, instead of spending on yet more cycle lanes and those problematic pointless plastic poles that are infesting our roads.
The top causes of road accidents are speeding, driver age and lack of experience and driving under the influence. Speeding doesn’t always mean breaking the speed limit; driving conditions call for lower speed, something where being an experienced driver must surely count.
And it’s a combination of inexperience and risk-taking behaviour in, statistically, young male drivers, like speeding, drink driving and not wearing a seat belt, that makes them most at risk.
Speed in the biggest killer, particularly on secondary and rural roads. In many schools in rural Ireland parents, staff and the board of management who say the safety measures at the school are not working and in particular they are highlighting issues around cars failing to stop at the zebra crossing.
I see it every day in my own town. Cars speeding, parking on double-yellow lines, cyclists and scooter users without helmets or high-viz gear in the dark of the evening. Pedestrians crossing the road without looking.
And here’s a thing: hit a pedestrian, or school child, at 30kph and they have an 80% chance of survival but hit them at 38kph and that chance is just 25%.
But it isn’t just down to drivers, car manufacturers could play a part too. We already have cars which warn us to buckle up, indicate when there are freezing conditions. How about warning signals when the speed limit is being exceeded or something like a black box used in planes which would record driver behaviour and be checked by Gardaí just as road tax, insurance and NCT is checked.
There could even be a score kept for good driving. Some manufacturers and insurance companies are considering all this.
The motor industry can be slow to respond. Look how long it took them to make cars less easy to steal. They still seem more interested in marketing the acceleration from 0 to 100 kph.
The era of autonomous self-drive cars is just around the corner. It’s early days to know whether or not they are safer than human drivers.
If they prove to be though, it might be time to let go of the steering wheel and drive down deaths on our roads.
Plesse drive carefully this Easter weekend.
