Calls for high-visibility roads policing as four killed in 24 hours

The RSA said road deaths in the first half of 2023 are the worst for six years.  Picture: Colin Keegan/Collins

Road safety campaigners have called for more high-visibility roads policing in the wake of four deaths, including two children, in the last 24 hours in separate road tragedies.

Parc road safety, which helps the families of those affected by serious road traffic collisions, said driver education is also vital to halt the increase in road deaths, with 108 lives lost on the roads so far this year, 14 more than for the same period last year, with eight deaths alone so far this month.

This month, the Road Safety Authority (RSA) said road deaths in the first half of 2023 are the worst for six years, and that if current trends continue, the death toll could reach 168 by year's end — 12 more than 2022 and 28 more than 2019.

A woman lays flowers at the Cork road into Carrigaline where André Ladeiro was struck by a car on Saturday. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

The latest victims have been named locally as André Ladeiro, aged 8, from Carrigaline, Co Cork, and Savannah Barry Calvert, aged 14, from Fairview Crescent in the Garryowen area of Limerick.

André was critically injured after being struck by a car while cycling with his mother in the town last Saturday. He died in Temple St Hospital on Wednesday.

Savannah also died on Wednesday from injuries she sustained following a collision with a car as she walked in the Bank Place area of Limerick city at around 11.40pm that night.

Also on Wednesday, a male cyclist died after a crash in Clare and a man died after falling from a truck in Carlow.

Data from a preliminary analysis of road traffic fatalities for the first half of the year highlights a number of worrying trends, including:

• 25 young people aged 16 to 25 had lost their lives by June;
• Almost the same number of 16- to 25-year-olds were killed in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period in 2021 and 2022 combined (27);
• Almost half (47%) of all deaths on the roads occurred at night-time (8pm-8am), when the roads are at their quietest;
• Three counties, Galway with 11 fatalities, Mayo with 10, and Cork with nine, accounted for almost one third (30%) of all fatalities.

Parc spokesperson Susan Gray said that while Garda investigations into the latest tragedies continue, in general, more high-visibility Garda roads policing is required.

“Enforcement, or the fear of coming across a Garda checkpoint on the road, or the fear of being prosecuted, seems to be the only way that some motorists will learn. We need more roads policing units, and we need more checkpoints on the roads.” 

Jack Chambers, minister of state at the Department of Transport, said it is particularly upsetting to see so many young people losing their lives as a result of road trauma. 

He said, however, that there has been seen a significant drop in deaths on Irish roads over the last two decades — from 472 in 1997 to 137 in 2021. 

"However, it is alarming to see a reversal in this trend," he said. 

"It is important to note that in road safety more generally, while most drivers are law-abiding, there is a cohort of drivers whose behaviours puts themselves and other road users in danger."