Rise in road deaths bucks EU improvement trend

The country’s steady rise towards the top of Europe’s road safety league table has been halted after last year’s increase in the number of fatalities.

While Ireland had been the standout performer in recent years, the rise in the number of people killed in car crashes in the last 12 months bucked a general improvement across Europe.

Overall, there was an 8% fall in the number of people killed on European roads in 2013 but there was a 19% increase in Ireland.

Across the EU, there is a target to reduce fatalities by half between 2010 and 2020 and, so far, this has remained achievable.

It is estimated 9,000 less people have died in the EU in two years because of the impact of the safety campaign.

In this country in 2013 there were 42 road deaths per million citizens.

This was below the European average, of 52 fatalities per million.

However, although we were among the better performers, the figure was worse than five other countries — Sweden, Britain, Denmark, Spain and Germany respectively.

Until 2013 Ireland had made major improvements compared with its peers on continental Europe. In 2001 it ranked among the worst places in Europe with 102 deaths for every million people.

But motorway construction along with the work of the Road Safety Authority, better cars and the penalty points system have all helped.

In 2011 there was an 11% drop in road deaths and this was followed by a further 13% fall in 2012.

Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas said while statistics were encouraging, they provided little solace to the scores of people killed daily.

“Transport safety is a trademark of Europe. This is why it is extremely important that the good results from 2012 were not a one-off.

“I’m proud to see that the EU is fully back on track to reach the road safety target for 2020. However, there are still 70 people who die on Europe’s roads every day, so we cannot be complacent.”

However, the Commission said there was still a particular concern about the continued risk facing pedestrians and cyclists during a period when there are public policy initiatives to push the use of bicycles.