These Cork teens are making Irish roads safer for visiting drivers

Two fifth year students from Cork conducted research on Irish road safety and quality over the summer.

Mark Lynes and Aisha McAuliffe from Coláiste Treasa Secondary School in Kanturk surveyed more than 700 tourists during a summer internships at Europcar Ireland.

The pair were awarded the internships after receiving a special accolade at last year’s BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition for their joint road safety awareness project titled ‘Take Care! Be internationally road aware’.

During their time with the car rental company, the secondary students used the expertise gained from their own road safety research to contribute to the driving experience sub-index within Europcar Ireland’s Annual Tourism Index.

"Promoting safe and enjoyable driving among tourists visiting Ireland is a key objective for us, so we were delighted to welcome Mark and Aisha to support the Europcar Ireland team with this road safety research and help us find interesting ways to educate and enlighten tourists about road safety" says  Colm Brady, Business Development Director of Europcar Ireland.

"The students have done some great work during their short time with us and we are certain they both have promising futures ahead of them."

They discovered that most tourists - 80% - have positive experiences while driving on Irish roads. The challenges they face include driving on a different side of the road to their own country, not knowing directions for their destinations, and speed limits.

Just under one in five feel somewhat unsafe when navigating the Irish road network.

Their research discovered the benefits for tourists of driving in Ireland. 71% rating roadside scenery as the best perk, 14% preferring the narrow, winding country roads, and equal number (7%) are impressed either by the good quality of the roads or the fresh air.

Interestingly, while many tourists find the Irish language a novelty of travelling to the country it can act as a point of confusion on the road with one in five tourists encountering Irish road signs that they can’t understand while driving.

Mark and Aisha also produced road safety awareness material with useful advice for a safe and memorable driving experience. This is available online here