Road safety chief says road death statistics 'improving' as road users become 'more vigilant'

Motorists have been urged to take care of vulnerable road users such as cyclists, motorcyclists and pedestrians.

The chief executive of the Road Safety Authority (RSA) says there has been an improvement in road death statistics in Ireland in recent months, despite the number of fatalities this year being more than the same time in 2023.

The claims are at odds with Road Safety Minister Jack Chambers, who said it was “too early to say what the wider trend is”, with numbers already above “a shocking year on our roads” in 2023.

“There’s eight fatalities more than last year, but we’re seeing an improvement,” RSA chief executive Sam Waide said. “It will only continue if people are more vigilant, and people have been more vigilant in the last few months, in April and May.

“Better behaviours coupled with education and enforcement. All of those levers, I’ve got confidence, will have a positive impact and will reduce the collisions and fatalities and serious injuries.” 

The pair made the comments at the launch of the June bank holiday weekend road safety appeal, with motorists urged to take care of vulnerable road users such as cyclists, motorcyclists and pedestrians.

This weekend will see the introduction of mandatory drug testing to go along with mandatory drink driving testing at serious collisions. 

Mr Chambers said it was one of a suite of measures being introduced, along with further enforcement, that should support safer roads in Ireland.

But, he added, this summer will be key to assessing wider trends on the roads.

“What we do know is this year is worse than last year,” he said.

If there’s a few very concerning accidents this weekend, things can peak again. We have to remain cognisant, careful and really remind people of the very, very worrying trend that we’ve seen year.

“And the risk of people losing their lives on our roads this year is worse than last year and could well continue into the summer. We know last August, 26 people lost their lives on our roads. We know the summer period is much busier on the roads.” 

Mr Chambers also said he wanted to reform the issue of drivers on multiple learner permits without having sat the driving tests, pointing to it as an “anomaly” that has been going on “for too long”.

“It's something I want to reform this year,” he said. 

“We’ve got people on 10-plus learner permits — that’s just not acceptable from a roads safety perspective.” 

He added he was working with the RSA on how to “reform and modernise” the organisation, which he plans to bring to Government later this summer.

While making an appeal for this weekend in particular, Mr Waide said the whole summer had to continue with the “better behaviour” on the roads he said has been seen in recent months that would “hopefully save more lives”.

“This is a period of time on the bank holiday,” he said. “Everyone is out, the schools are off, people are off work. Everyone wants to get out and about and use the roads.

“It’s for everyone to be vigilant and take care of each other. We have seen a reduction in fatalities in the last few months. We need to continue that reduction in fatalities over the summer and in serious injuries also.”