Revamp of penalty points system in bid to prevent road collisions

Road Safety Authority chairperson Liz O'Donnell  spoke of the 'regrettable' increase in road fatalities and collisions this year. File picture: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie 

Emergency penalty points legislation is to be brought in to target “killer” offences on Irish roads in an attempt to prevent death and serious injuries.

Over 900 people have been seriously injured as a result of road collisions so far this year, while the death count is at 140. Both are the highest total in nearly a decade.

Mobile phone usage and speeding will be among the offences targeted by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) and the gardaí, with both groups having held a number of meetings with the Government in recent weeks.

Attendees at the RSA’s annual conference in Dublin on Wednesday were informed the authority had been “extremely galvanised” in recent weeks, having held meetings with Transport Minister Eamon Ryan, Justice Minister Helen McEntee and Junior Minister Jack Chambers.

Serious injuries

Statistics from the RSA showed for every death on Irish roads, 10 people will be left living with serious injuries — something that chairperson Liz O’Donnell said was often “overlooked” when it comes to road collision discussion.

“Not many people survive a serious crash and go back to the life they had — these injuries can be life-changing and life long.” 

Ms O’Donnell spoke of the “regrettable” increase in road fatalities and collisions this year (both up 30 on pre-pandemic figures) after “solid” progress had been made in previous years.

“However, I cannot see these trends changing anytime soon. It needs more investment and more attention. Education awareness campaigns which target dangerous road user behaviour is a key area of course, that’s what we do best.” 

She added: “I believe we can reduce the number of people being killed and seriously injured on our roads and made a 50% reduction in our reality by 2030. I say that because we've done it before. The RSA was formed in 2006 and by 2018 we have gone down from annual fatalities of 365 to 135.

"Every one of us can do one behaviour at a time which reduces the possibility of having a crash. I hope that will get traction with the public.” 

Cyclist injuries

The conference heard alarming statistics when it came to cyclist injuries.

Dr Stefania Castello of the RSA said for every seriously injured cyclist recorded by gardaí, there were two to three cyclists that would end up hospitalised.

Garda data said17% of those cyclists were injured in single-vehicle collisions, but RSA data showed it was 63% in actuality.

This under-reporting of data was a Europe-wide problem, the conference heard.

Mr Chambers is to bring forward legislation this month which will make changes to the Road Traffic Bill — which he believes will result in safer roads.

“After [it is introduced to Government this month], we hope to have an accelerated timeframe to bring it through the houses of the Oireachtas before Christmas.

“It’s going to do three things: reform the anomalies with our penalty points system; change the default speed limits to allow for the guidance to be issued to local authorities next year to make a safer baseline for our speed limits; and thirdly have mandatory drug testing at the scene of a collision, in line with the mandatory alcohol testing which is currently in place.”