2010 road fatality statistics

AugustusMinimus

Took a look on the Garda website this morning. 37 deaths up to today this year in comparison to 55 last year.

Lets hope this trend continues. Ireland has to be the most improved country in Europe in regards to road fatalities in Europe. I would also imagine that if the current rate is expanded out for the entire year that we will be up with the likes of the UK or Netherlands in terms of being one of the best countries in Europe.


OK. Some quick calculations.

37 deaths so far expanded out to a 365 day year would give a total yearly figures of 171 deaths.

Population of Ireland is 4,459,300 hence, with 171 deaths it would mean that years, there are 38.34 deaths per million.

The latest figure I can get for Holland is 709 deaths in 2008. This leads to a figure of 43.11 deaths per million.

BrianD3

Yes, if things go very well from now on we might get under 200 deaths this year which would be amazing given previous death figures.

The prolonged icy weather at the start of the year may contribute to a lower death figure this year. In the ice, people were driving less and much slower. There were loads of fender benders but very few serious crashes

Even if we don't get under 200, there has indeed been a massive improvement in the last few years. Safer new roads, better enforcement, safer cars are big factors.

Well done to the authorities I know this statement will wind people up

yuloni

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BrianD3

Condi wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

IIRC 1997 was an awful year as was 1990. Most years up to recently were either bad or awful.

Back in the 1970s things were even worse. On more than one occasion, 600+ people died in a year. When you consider that the population was less then and I'd say average mileage was less ( due to less long distance commuting) a figure of 600+ is shocking.

Listening to RTE, a person would think that road deaths here are worse than they are. RTE will have a headline "4 dead in weekend road accidents" and it often turns out that some of those were in the United Kingdom i.e. Northern Ireland.

AugustusMinimus

Road deaths in the last 10 years were not that bad compared to the 70's and 80's especially considering the number of cars on our roads no in comparison to the 70s and 80s.

A lot of this was almost media hysteria on the subject. Hysteria or not, part of it prob contributed to the fall off in fatalities.

Atlantic Dawn

Would be interesting to get accident figures rather than death figures, it's obvious that deaths will go down as cars get safer even if the same standards of driving and policing are maintained.

Almost all weekend road deaths are drink related and caused between the hours of 12 and 5 am, pub shutting times, very little can be done about people with this level of inteligence.

AugustusMinimus

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Would be interesting to get accident figures rather than death figures, it's obvious that deaths will go down as cars get safer even if the same standards of driving and policing are maintained.

Almost all weekend road deaths are drink related and caused between the hours of 12 and 5 am, pub shutting times, very little can be done about people with this level of inteligence.

Link to Garda website: http://www.garda.ie/Controller.aspx?Page=138


Hard to get accident figures. Do you want total accidents (including fender benders) or just ones where people are seriously injured.

The Garda website gives us the total number of accidents related to fatalities, but of course, this figure is meaningless as it doesn't factor in how many people were in the said cars during the accidents.

McSpud

Gay Byrne is doing a great job

L1011

The drastically improving road network contributes hugely to this

This time last year the N8 had a lengthy section of road with passing lanes (which can lead to very high speed head-ons), the N9 wound through Castledermot, the N6 had its 80km/h sections with no shoulders, etc, etc. All motorway now.

stealthyspeeder

Scappage scheme could be having an impact on road deaths too, some of the old bangers that were on the roads most probably would not fair as well as the newer cars given the same accident, the newer car might even have stopped the accident from occuring in the first place in some instances (eg traction control ABS etc)

halkar

During recessions everything goes down except unemployment and taxes...

L1011

stealthyspeeder wrote: »

Scappage scheme could be having an impact on road deaths too, some of the old bangers that were on the roads most probably would not fair as well as the newer cars given the same accident, the newer car might even have stopped the accident from occuring in the first place in some instances (eg traction control ABS etc)

I think that'll have more of an effect in a while, the hardening of the NCT fines last year probably had something similar in that some people who were willing to risk getting caught in a failed car have chucked it.

BrianD3

halkar wrote: »

During recessions everything goes down except unemployment and taxes...

Its not as if we haven't had recessions before though. And even with the current recession, I'd imagine that economic activity and traffic is much higher now than it was in 1990. Nearly 500 died that year.

rameire

March 'safest month ever' on Irish roads

The Department of Transport said there were 11 fatalities during the month, bringing the total number of road deaths this year to 40, down 17 on this time last year.


Read more: http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/march-safest-month-ever-on-irish-roads-452321.html#ixzz0jrWOoRWg


http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/march-safest-month-ever-on-irish-roads-452321.html

seamus

Irish roads have never been safer than the last ten years. As mentioned above, given the increase in traffic volumes, even 400 deaths a year compared favourably to previous decades.

It would appear that the biggest factors are penalty points (who'da thunk it), increased Garda visibilty/enforcement/powers and improved major trunk roads.

I do also think that public sentiment has swung very much in a safer way. 1 in 3 people now think that a few jars before driving home is OK. In the 70's and 80s, I reckon 2 in 3 people felt the same way.

mike65

BrianD3 wrote: »

Listening to RTE, a person would think that road deaths here are worse than they are. RTE will have a headline "4 dead in weekend road accidents" and it often turns out that some of those were in the United Kingdom i.e. Northern Ireland.

RTE for some reason give fatalities in Norn Iron the same "news value" as ROI deaths, they might as well throw in Wales given the traffic east-west. The result, as you note gives a false impresssion.

breadmonkey

Are those figures statistically significant?

I wonder does the shrinking population have anything to do with this?

Leonard Hofstadter

This shows what happens when you have better roads, the reductions are certainly not anything to do with good driving that's for sure.

This is the first full year that Dublin to Galway road is now a motorway from start to finish.

If there was one good thing about the boom period the investment in all the decent roads is it, we still have a long way to go and it may be several years late in some cases but the road network has improved beyond all recognition compared to 2000.

As the Dublin to Waterford/Limerick/Cork ones are done the numbers will only continue to decrease and when some day they bother to give Cork and Limerick a decent road between the 2 cities things will go down even further.

Zubeneschamali

seamus wrote: »

It would appear that the biggest factors are penalty points (who'da thunk it), increased Garda visibilty/enforcement/powers and improved major trunk roads.

I think it's down to roads, less acceptance of drink driving, roads and roads.

If the current pathetic levels of enforcement are catching people doing really dangerous speeding, well, good, but I'm afraid those penalty points are mostly fish-in-a-barrel speed traps on roads with inconsistent limits. These have no real effect on road safety, in my opinion.

stevenmu

breadmonkey wrote: »

Are those figures statistically significant?

On their own probably not, but they do seem to be following the general trend of the last 2 to 3 years.

pburns

Zubeneschamali wrote: »

I think it's down to roads, less acceptance of drink driving, roads and roads.

If the current pathetic levels of enforcement are catching people doing really dangerous speeding, well, good, but I'm afraid those penalty points are mostly fish-in-a-barrel speed traps on roads with inconsistent limits. These have no real effect on road safety, in my opinion.

You've been listening to Gay Byrne.

Better road network? Pfft! That's been increamentally improving for the last decade as has intolerence of drink-driving.

No, it's the economy stupid - fewer people on the roads at peak times. And fewer...eh...crap drivers on the roads at peak times...

Traumadoc

I dont think its just down to roads though this has helped, I really think the drink driving clampdown has had a huge impact.

The 2 am run from the nightclub seems to be largely a thing of the past.

Most of the drink related crashes seem to involve eastern europeans who seem to have the culture we had 10-15 years ago. ( is loss of license a serious enough deterent?)

Lots of fatal daytime crashes seem to involve HGVs on national ( non-motorway) routes. Also pedestrians walking home from the pub.

billybigunz

Better cars and better roads have saved a lot of lives.

Roanmore

pburns wrote: »

You've been listening to Gay Byrne.

Better road network? Pfft! That's been increamentally improving for the last decade as has intolerence of drink-driving.

No, it's the economy stupid - fewer people on the roads at peak times. And fewer...eh...crap drivers on the roads at peak times...

+1

A lot less trucks on the road as well (well on the road I travel daily to work).

billybigunz

Roanmore wrote: »

+1

A lot less trucks on the road as well (well on the road I travel daily to work).

The road traffic is still higher than pre 2002 levels, certainly the 1990s.

Stinicker

Another thing that is contributing is the Co2 tax which has seen Irish drivers shift away from junk box underpowered cars to decent 2.0l cars with engine sizes to match the body which pollute less. Thus Irish people are now driving far more powerful cars than ever before and have a far better chance of completing that risky overtaking manoeuvre than before meaning less head on crashes. Overtaking an artic in a 1.2l would be suicide but sink the shoe in a powerful large engined car and she'll let the lorry for dead.

ardmacha

Listening to RTE, a person would think that road deaths here are worse than they are. RTE will have a headline "4 dead in weekend road accidents" and it often turns out that some of those were in Northern Ireland.

Perhaps they wish to give all deaths in Ireland and not only those in particular counties. They are Radio Telefis Éireann, after all.

Most of the drink related crashes seem to involve eastern europeans who seem to have the culture we had 10-15 years ago.

A lot of young men from Eastern Europe were working in contstruction and simiar and have returned to their home countries.

galwaytt

stealthyspeeder wrote: »

Scappage scheme could be having an impact on road deaths too, some of the old bangers that were on the roads most probably would not fair as well as the newer cars given the same accident, the newer car might even have stopped the accident from occuring in the first place in some instances (eg traction control ABS etc)

MYOB wrote: »

I think that'll have more of an effect in a while, the hardening of the NCT fines last year probably had something similar in that some people who were willing to risk getting caught in a failed car have chucked it.

The NCT issue is a red-herring. Even according to the RSA, HERE, vehicles as contributory factor, are only 0.3% of accidents. Even if you were to multiply that by 10, it's still only 3%. Pedestrians 'contribute' to 4 times the number killed, than vehicles, and nobody is handing out €400 million to a Spanish company to do anything about that...

The influence of the presence or otherwise of NCT on that, therefore, is miniscule.

billybigunz

galwaytt wrote: »

The NCT issue is a red-herring. Even according to the RSA, HERE, vehicles as contributory factor, are only 0.3% of accidents. Even if you were to multiply that by 10, it's still only 3%. Pedestrians 'contribute' to 4 times the number killed, than vehicles, and nobody is handing out €400 million to a Spanish company to do anything about that...

The influence of the presence or otherwise of NCT on that, therefore, is miniscule.

Good vehilces don't get included in any stats. Near misses that would otherwise be fatalities because a car has much better brakes, traction control, handling etc. I suppose that is not really an NCT issue just a general trend with cars.

Traumadoc

NCT was brought in by europe and backed up by european car manufacturers, they do the same in Japan. Its to make older cars uneconomical, yearly testing is coming , no one wants a car they have to take to be tested on a yearly basis and all the stress and cost that entails ( especially if you dont have the original owners home county in Irish on the number plate ffs).

SFA to do with road safety IMO.

ardmacha

and all the stress and cost that entails

"Stress". Talk about whinging. The NCT may not be perfect, but such testing has a definite role in improving safety. As billybigunz said if your brakes are good and you stop 50cm short of someone then there is no statistic whatsoever, but an accident may have been averted.

Voodoomelon

Its an bizarre topic i think, road deaths that is. We all talk about future road deaths and statistics as if they are "other people", when in fact we are talking about ourselves. One of us here could be one of the next hundred deaths this year, how unnerving is that?

There really is no complete solution to it, innocent, careful drivers die all the time, albeit not as much as the idiots out there. I don't know about everywhere else, but deaths of young people seems to be down in the north east, at least going by the news on the radio every day.

Traumadoc

ardmacha wrote: »

"Stress". Talk about whinging. The NCT may not be perfect, but such testing has a definite role in improving safety. As billybigunz said if your brakes are good and you stop 50cm short of someone then there is no statistic whatsoever, but an accident may have been averted.

Taking a day off work is a PITA, that is why I have cars that do not need NCT.

How would an accident be averted if the original owners home county in Irish is on the number plate?
Or how having a quieter exhaust note would avert an accident- (IMO the electric cars are far more dangerous - and should have a bell to warn people).