Government, RSA and gardaí to look for ways to address mounting road carnage
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The Government is to meet the Road Safety Authority and gardaí to try to address the spike in road deaths which has so far seen 20% more fatalities in 2023 than last year, and 40% more than 2019.
Junior Transport Minister Jack Chambers has also said a review that will "radically change" the "mishmash” of speed limits across the country will be before the Government in the coming weeks.
Mr Chambers said the progress made in reducing road deaths in recent years has been reversed with a very worrying trend emerging in its place. The deaths of two motorcyclists on Sunday evening, along with the tragic loss of four young people in a crash at Clonmel on Friday, brought the number of deaths on Irish roads this year to 120.
Among those who have died so far in 2023 are 27 pedestrians, 43 drivers, 26 passengers, 17 motorcyclists, three pedal cyclists, three e-scooter riders and one pillion passenger.
Last year saw a total of 156 road deaths, the highest number since 2016. By the beginning of August, the Road Safety Authority was already saying that, should current trends continue, then the number of lives lost on the roads this year could reach 168.
At that stage, the RSA and gardaí were forecasting this potential figure with a “stark warning”. However, as we enter the last four months of the year, it is feared the number of fatalities could now eclipse that predicted figure.
Mr Chambers said he is absolutely devastated and shocked by the terrible tragedy in Clonmel, adding that “four young lives [were] lost in a split second” as he extended his condolences. The minister said work is underway to try to reverse the worrying trend that has emerged on the roads this year.
“We are working with the Road Safety Authority as part of the road safety committee that I chair on messaging and refreshing the communication so we target the road safety message at the cohort where we see the underlying trend.” Mr Chambers said an updated communications campaign is being worked on by the Road Safety Authority in this area.
“But separately we’re working on other initiatives with An Garda Síochána, expanding the GoSafe contract, for example, to address the issue of speeding. I have a speed limit review which I’ll be bringing to Government in the coming weeks which will quite radically change a lot of the fragmentation and mishmash of speed limits that we see on our roads system.”
The minister told RTÉ radio he would also be discussing enforcement of road safety laws with gardaí at the road safety committee, which meets quarterly. “I think it can be improved,” he added when asked about enforcement and visibility from An Garda Síochána.
Mr Chambers said strengthened enforcement will be important between now and the end of the year "to address this very worrying trend”.
Meanwhile, books of condolence opened on Monday in Clonmel for the four victims of a road crash in the Co. Tipperary town. Twenty-four-year-old Luke McSweeney, his 18-year-old sister Grace McSweeney and Zoey Coffey and Nicole Murphy, both also aged 18, were killed in the collision on Friday evening.
A book for each victim was opened at the local council offices at County Hall in Clonmel on Monday morning. Opening the books of condolences, Mayor of Clonmel, Richie Molloy, said: "[Sunday’s] vigil really showed the community coming out, I suppose, to give some solace to the families, and we just can only barely imagine the trauma that they're going through.
"I think the books are another way for the people of the town to come out and to show their sympathy."