Non-national drivers in 800 road accidents

MORE THAN 800 serious road accidents involving non-national drivers were recorded last year as the number of such incidents has shown a strong upward trend since 2003.

Official estimates from the Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland also indicate that 25% of foreign motorists involved in accidents on Irish roads are uninsured.

It follows the deaths of five foreign nationals - four Latvians and one Lithuanian - in a two-car collision at Buncrana, Co Donegal.

The victims were named last night as Aija Porckia, 38; her daughter, Gina Veite, 19; Danielius Abartis, 23; and Marita Kerpe, 28; all from Latvia with an address in Buncrana and Recardas Beilskis, 35, from Lithuania with an address at Burnfoot, Co Donegal.

Fifteen of the 63 people who died on roads in the Republic so far this year were non-nationals.

Preliminary estimates for 2005 from the MIBI indicate that more than 800 cases of accidents involving non-Irish motorists were recorded last year compared to 749 in 2003 and 799 in 2004.

The MIBI - which handles all insurance claims for traffic accidents involving cars driven by uninsured and foreign drivers - established that 400 drivers of foreign-registered vehicles involved in crashes in 2003 and 2004 were not properly insured.

MIBI chief executive John Casey said: “There is also anecdotal evidence that there has been an increase in accidents involving foreign drivers in 2005.”

In contrast, the overall number of claims processed by the MIBI has been falling in recent years with accidents involving uninsured drivers falling from 2,800 in 2003 to 2,100 last year.

The MIBI figures lend some support to concern voiced by several TDs recently about the driving behaviour of non-nationals.

However, they also show that accidents involving cars registered in Northern Ireland and Britain account for around 50% of the total.

The growing number of accidents involving Eastern Europeans may also be a reflection of a strong rise in the number of migrants from the 10 EU accession states.

Last month, the chairman of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, John Ellis, claimed public representatives had received repeated complaints about non-nationals driving cars without tax, insurance or an NCT certificate.

Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy admitted there are gaps in the legislation about the power of gardaí to seize foreign-registered cars. However, Transport Minister Martin Cullen has signalled the law will soon be changed to allow gardaí to impound such vehicles.

Mr Conroy also acknowledged that gardaí do not have any information about the number of accidents involving non-national drivers and their insurance details.

The Donegal crash victims died after their vehicles were involved in a head-on collision on the main Buncrana-Derry road at around 4.30am on Saturday. The sole survivor of the crash, another Latvian, is in a stable condition in hospital.