Road death figures - Safety moves are simply not working

SUSPICIONS inevitably arise over the non-inclusion of the Irish road death figures for 2005 among the preliminary figures released by the EU Transport Ministers’ conference.

Is this omission due to Ireland’s abysmal road safety record, which is officially shown as one of the worst in Europe? The situation is all the more perplexing because the figures for the 2005 death toll are readily available from garda sources.

Whatever the explanation, our analysis shows that 399 people died on the Republic’s roads last year, a rise of 25 on 2004.

In contrast with a 6.5% fall across Europe during the year, fatalities here rose by 6.7%.

For the second year in a row, the carnage on our roads has run counter to the European trend. People are dying because Transport Minister Martin Cullen’s policies and the Government’s high-profile road safety campaign are simply not working.