Road deaths rise in 2020 despite drop in distance covered by vehicles

In 2020, Irish vehicles drove more than 36 billion kilometres when combined, compared with just over 47 billion kilometres in 2019. Picture: Colin Keegan

Irish cars, lorries, vans, and buses saw a 25% drop in the number of kilometres travelled in 2020 as Covid-19 gripped the country, but more people died on the roads than the year previously, while penalty points rose.

Those are just some of the findings of the Central Statistics Office (CSO) transport omnibus for 2020, which looked at air, rail, road, and sea travel data, as well as patterns such as cars being bought.

Although unsurprising in its findings that transport plummeted in all sectors, the scale of the drop in each sector does bring into stark focus just how radically everyday lives were changed across the board.

The omnibus includes statistics on diverse topics such as vehicle licensing, penalty points, total kilometres driven in 2020, aviation and public transport. Road safety findings were perhaps surprising, considering the reduction in the number of kilometres driven in 2020.

The CSO said that 147 people were killed on Irish roads, an increase of seven fatalities when compared with 2019. Data for 2020 show that just under 47% of people killed on Irish roads were car users and 21.8% pedestrians, it said.

In 2020, Irish vehicles drove more than 36 billion kilometres when combined, compared with just over 47 billion kilometres in 2019. According to CSO calculations, that means each vehicle travelled 12,723 kilometres on average in 2020, a decrease of 24.6% compared with 2019.

Private cars continue to overwhelmingly dominate Irish roads, the data show. They accounted for over 77% of the total number of licensed vehicles and 72% of the total distance travelled in 2020. 

However, social distancing and laws around unnecessary journeys in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic had a major impact on typical drivers, according to the data. On average, each private car travelled 11,803 kilometres in 2020, a decrease of 27.8% compared with 2019.

A total of 8.3 million passengers passed through Irish airports in 2020, a decrease of 78% compared with 2019https://t.co/ErMuWjjnrx #CSOIreland #Ireland #IrishTransport #TransportIreland #Transport #PortTraffic #VehicleLicensing #NewVehicle #RoadFreight #Logistics #Business pic.twitter.com/RZ5Tq7dFkT

— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) November 24, 2021

Despite the pronounced drop in the number of kilometres travelled by Irish drivers, penalties actually increased overall. A total of 198,589 penalty point endorsement notices were issued, an increase of 3.9% on the previous year, the CSO said.

Some 74% of all penalty point endorsement notices issued in 2020 were for speeding, compared with around 64% in 2019.

Those waiting on driving tests were severely impacted in the first year of the pandemic. More than three million Irish driving licences were held at the end of 2020, of which 8.3% were learner permit licences. There were 87,580 driving tests conducted in 2020 with an average pass rate of 55%.

Compared with 2019, the number of driving tests conducted in 2020 decreased by 53%, the CSO said.

Over one million cars underwent the National Car Test (NCT) in 2020, but more than four out of every 10 cars failed the initial test.

A total of 8.3 million passengers passed through Irish airports in 2020, a decrease of 78% compared with 2019, as foreign travel was either banned or severely restricted. Internal travel was also ravaged, the data show.

Some 120.2 million passengers took journeys on the bus, down more than 47%, while Irish Rail passenger numbers fell by more than 64% to 17.9 million. 

Dublin's Luas system also saw a huge drop in journeys, falling more than 60% to 19.2 million, while ferries carried 800,000 people, a drop of more than 69%.