Irish Road Deaths Drops and EU Confirms Ireland as Sixth Safest Country in Europe

In the first six months of this year some 90 people lost their lives on the Irish roads, according to figures from An Garda Siochana and the Road Safety Authority (RSA). Although still quite we have seen a 9% improvement since last year’s figures when 99 people died. The figures included drivers, passengers and pedestrians which have all improved greatly since last year.
The only figure which raised some concern was the increase in motorcyclists and cyclists deaths this year. April was the lowest month in road deaths ever recorded and May was extremely low considering the bank holiday. There is still a lot of concern regarding young deaths on our roads (a third of road user deaths are between 16 and 25) but at least we are finally moving in the right direction.  The RSA have commented on these recent figures stating to “redouble our efforts to prevent further suffering and tragedy as a result of deaths on our roads”.
Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan said: "Gardaí are working closely with our partner agencies to further reduce deaths and serious injury and we will continue to target our enforcement activity at areas where fatalities are more likely to occur.
As a result in the drop in road deaths we can be proud of is the recent statistics released in a report by the European Transport Safety Council in Brussels which states Ireland as the sixth safest country in Europe out of the 27 states. It stated that a total of 411 people were killed on Irish roads in 2001 compared with 212 in 2010, which represents a 48 per cent cut in road deaths. Only 10 other member states managed to achieve or improve on this level of reduction in road deaths.
Noel Brett, chief executive of the Road Safety Authority, commented on the ETSC report by praising the Irish public for their achievements.
“Yet again road users in Ireland have shown that by taking road safety into the heart of their communities many lives can be saved and injuries prevented. Your achievement is remarkable and you have become an example to the rest of Europe and indeed the world by your responsible actions on the roads. But these achievements can be easily taken away from us if we allow ourselves to become complacent. There is still a big gap between Ireland and the safest counties in Europe. “
The benefits in these reductions have a ripple effect through a number of areas in society such as car insurance rates. Car insurance Ireland has seen a steady climb over the past number of years but hopefully stats like this will help to bring those numbers down. 

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