Ireland has to 'change the narrative' if it is to reach zero road deaths by 2050
Sam Waide (left), CEO of the Road Safety Authority and Sue O’Neill, CEO of the Irish Tyre Industry Association. Sam Waide on road deaths in Ireland said this week: “We’re going backwards.” File picture: Robbie Reynolds
The message is clear: Ireland’s roads are more dangerous and more people are dying on them.
The Government has made a target for the number of road deaths to fall drastically by 2030. But that seems remote when we had already reached that target figure within just five months this year.
And, by the end of July, already 100 people had died on Irish roads in 2023. At our current rate, we are on track for nearly 170 deaths on the roads this year. If that were to happen it would be the highest number since 2016.
The number of fatalities on the roads is up 10% on last year, with an increasing trend of deaths among passengers, motorcyclists and pedestrians.
“This is the worst year we’ve had in six years,” the CEO of the Road Safety Authority Sam Waide said this week. “We’re going backwards.” Mr Waide was speaking the morning after the horrific events in Monaghan on Monday night.
Two young women died in the crash on the way to the Largy College Debs ball. Kiea McCann was 17 years old and Dlava Mohammad was 16. One of the crucial rites of passage for young people is going to the Debs. Beforehand there had been celebrations to set them on their way. And it wasn’t long after leaving when tragedy struck on the road outside Clones.
“Firstly, my thoughts and prayers go out to the families,” the RSA chief said. “It’s a stark reminder of the dangers on the roads.”
The principal of Largy College Sharon Magennis spoke of her “profound sadness and grief” following the loss of the “cherished” pupils. “We will look at how to support the families as best we can,” she said.
The news cycle in Ireland is regularly punctuated with news of tragedies from all over the country. It’s all too frequent that a notification on our news apps, or a flash on a radio bulletin, informs of the latest deaths or serious injuries on Irish roads.
In the space of just one weekend last month, six people died on Irish roads. It led to a warning from the Road Safety Authority that the statistics in Ireland were “going in the wrong direction”, and that “people are speeding in a routine way now”.
It’s not the first time we heard that this year. After another particularly awful weekend on the roads during the Easter Bank Holiday, Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Jack Chambers, took to the airwaves to express his concerns at “too many lives lost again this year”.
“We are renewing our efforts and just to reassure people of that, we've seen very, very concerning trends,” he said. “So, obviously speeding has played a key role and we've a review on speed limits which will be presented to me in the next number of weeks.
"We've seen an increase in intoxicated driving and an increase in alcohol- and drug-use when people are driving over the last number of years, when you examine the data over a period of time."
Despite these warnings, the worrying trends have continued to the point where we reached 100 deaths on the roads by the end of July. Mr Waide pinpointed two particular risk areas as being factors in many of the road deaths this year.
“The first one is that young people are in a high-risk group,” he said. The statistics show that almost one-quarter of the deaths recorded so far this year were in the 16-25 age group. Almost the same number of 15- to 25-year-olds were killed on the roads so far this year (23) as the same period in 2021 and 2022 combined (26).
The main ask from Mr Waide on this is for parents and young people to really talk about road safety and drill all those important messages home, he said.
Another concerning trend, he said, is night-time driving. “Almost 50% of fatalities are occurring at night,” he said. “When traffic is at its lowest.”
Mr Waide said that speed continues to be a problem at nighttime, while weather conditions can also make the roads more treacherous. “We also have some behaviours, such as small groups of people continuing to drink and drive. We need to change those behaviours. And change them completely.”
The Government’s Road Safety Strategy 2021-2030 was a major initiative aimed at reducing the number of deaths and serious injuries on Irish roads by 50% by 2030. It was built on previous road safety initiatives, and informed by the progress made within them.
“A key recommendation from the 2013-2020 Action Plan evaluation was that strategy actions be specifically designed to reduce fatalities and serious injuries, and that these actions should be measured and evaluated on their effectiveness in doing so,” the latest strategy said.
“High-impact actions include those that will have a direct impact on the reduction of deaths and serious injuries on Irish roads. Their effectiveness in doing so can be measured, and they are critical for governance activities and reporting.”
So, it was essentially an aim to reduce the number of deaths and injuries on our roads, with a set of actions outlined in the strategy to help support them. Mr Waide said that due to the urgency of the situation regarding the number of road deaths, the RSA has brought forward some of the actions contained within the strategy.
“Enforcement is key within road safety,” he said. “It’s about trying to get technology to better service the road policing effort and resourcing.”
Minister Chambers said that a review of the strategy itself earlier this year flagged up issues that needed addressing. “The first annual review of the current Road Safety Strategy was held on 2 February 2023, resulting in the identification of a series of new priority actions for 2023,” he said last month.
“Considering the increase in road fatalities in 2022, one of these new priority areas will focus on understanding driver behaviour, and which will examine the various types of driver distraction, including but not limited to mobile phone use. This is on top of the action taken by Government in October last year in relation to doubling the fixed charge notice for mobile phone use while driving.”
With a view to supporting these aims, in June the Government passed the Road Traffic and Roads Bill 2021. It gives new powers to gardaí to seize and dispose of scramblers and other vehicles used dangerously, with a possibility to initiate a prosecution if they’re being driven dangerously.
It also allows for the introduction of variable speed limits in Ireland and specifically the M50 in the first instance, and a framework for the regulated use of CCTV cameras and other data-gathering devices by local authorities and Transport Infrastructure Ireland on the public road network.
But even with all these efforts being put in place, to achieve the goals of the strategy, the number of deaths on Irish roads would have to fall and fall drastically.
By 2030, the strategy envisions Ireland having 72 deaths or lower on the roads per year, and have serious injuries reduced to 630 or lower. The loftier ambition is to reach zero road deaths by 2050.
It only took five months of 2023 for Ireland to reach that 72 mark, indicating there is still a very long way to go in this ambition. Furthermore, to keep on pace with this strategy of reducing road deaths, the total figure for 2024 would need to be 122 or lower.
Given that number may turn out to be far exceeded this year, it is a cause for concern. And there are particular areas worrying the RSA too.
Mr Waide said there were “concerning trends” in Galway, Mayo and Cork in terms of road deaths. As part of the RSA’s work, he said, they have delivered 100 “safety interventions” in the likes of schools, companies and community groups.
“It really is a continued effort, and what we’re trying to do is target specific groups,” he said. “We’re working with Twitch, TikTok and Youtube Music to try and get that road safety message across to young people.
“We need to pull together. If these trends continue, we’ll have nearly approximately 168 deaths by the end of this year.”
Garda statistics point to a sustained problem with both serious and common road offences. In each of the first three months of this year, more than 640 drivers were detected driving while intoxicated. This figure reached 700 in March.
Again, over 300 drivers per month were flagged for dangerous driving in this same time period. Also, more than 12,000 speeding offences are detected each month along with nearly 1,500 a month detected using their mobile phone and over 400 fixed charge notices issued for not wearing seatbelts.
Mr Waide said that these common forms of breaking the law while driving absolutely need to change.
Another statistic that does stand out are the numbers of gardaí attached to roads policing across the country. Figures from the Department of Justice and An Garda Síochána show the number of gardaí in these units across the country stood at 1,046 in 2009.
They began to fall steadily in the early 2010s before cratering to 623 in 2017. The numbers then increased in subsequent years up to 736 in 2021 before dropping again last year and into 2023. The latest figure for June suggests there are 678 roads policing gardaí across the country.
In Cork city, the number has fallen from 51 to 32. Cork North has also seen numbers dwindle from 41 to 21 with Cork West also at 21 (down six).
As ever, garda numbers are constantly under the spotlight, with opposition political parties urging for more gardaí across roads policing and other areas. Garda unions, meanwhile, have continuously highlighted the declining numbers of manpower within An Garda Síochána.
Assistant Garda Commissioner Paula Hilman agreed that the overall numbers of gardaí in road policing divisions across the country are down on what they were a decade ago, but said they are working hard to increase those numbers. Furthermore, the number of deaths now is lower compared to a decade ago.
She said the tasking of roads policing gardaí is evidence-based and information-based and about having them in the “right places at the right time”.
Mr Waide said that, despite this fall over the years, he was confident that An Garda Síochána was committed to using all the available resources they had to enforce the rules of the road. He said this would particularly be the case this August Bank Holiday weekend.
“But it’s not just about garda resources on the road,” he said. “It’s about making the best use of technology. The RSA has been advocating for an increase in the hours of operation of speed vans.”
He said “evidence-driven measures” such as average speed cameras demonstrably improve road safety and enforcement is key to clamp down on bad behaviours.
The long-term strategy to eradicate road deaths and serious injuries on our roads is called Vision Zero. What this year so far has shown us is that there is still a long way to go to reach that goal.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said this week that the surge in road deaths is more than just a setback. “There was a time when nearly 600 people every year died on roads in Ireland,” he said. “I don’t want us to go back to that.”
Heading to an August bank holiday, there will be a considerable garda presence on the roads as people go to and fro over the long weekend.
In Cork, county mayor Frank O’Flynn issued a rallying call for people to work together to ensure safer road use for everyone.
“This year in Cork there have been four pedestrian, two driver, two passenger and one motorcyclist tragedy on our roads," he said.
“The road is a shared space, so if you are a driver, passenger, pedestrian, cyclist, motorcyclist or any other type of road user please do so carefully. Slow down, belt up and put away the mobile phone.”
In a bid to “change the conversation” and try to arrest the worrying trends in road safety, Mr Waide issued a rallying call of his own and said it’s within all of our power to influence decisions made.
“My ask to everyone is to bring road safety back to the dinner table,” he said. “And back to the breakfast bar. Families, friends, peers, colleagues, bring it back to the forefront of the conversation.
“Everyone needs to be encouraging good behaviour. We have to avoid distractions like rushing to meet timelines. We all need to change our behaviour, be safer on the road and reduce our speed.
“This is a call to arms. This is about saving lives and reducing serious injuries. A lost life is an empty chair at the table. No one wants families’ and friends’ lives changed forever.”
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