A target to reduce road deaths over the Christmas period has been missed, with 19 people having died since the beginning of last month.
The State’s Christmas road safety campaign, which was launched in November, aimed to deliver a reduction in road deaths over the six-week period on the average of just under 17 over the previous five years.
This year’s six-week campaign is due to end this Friday but 19 deaths were recorded from when it commenced to New Year’s Day.
The first death came on December 2nd when a woman in her 40s died after a crash on the N25 at Gaulstown, Glenmore, Co Kilkenny.
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There were four deaths on December 7th relating to two road traffic incidents in Co Tipperary, one in Co Clare and another in Co Galway.
Further fatal incidents occurred in Co Donegal on December 10th; Dublin city centre on December 11th; Maynooth in Co Kildare on December 12th; and Granard, Co Longford, on December 18th.
After Christmas
A series of fatal crashes happened in the State in the days after Christmas. A man died in a crash near Ferns in Co Wexford on St Stephen’s Day and then three people died on December 27th in separate crashes in Co Wicklow, Co Mayo and Ballyfermot, Dublin. There were two further deaths on December 30th following collisions in St Johnston, Co Donegal, and in Terenure, Dublin.
Three people died on New Year’s Eve following a two-car collision near Kells, Co Meath, and a male motorcyclist died in Ballymun, Dublin, on New Year’s Day.
Susan Gray, founder and chair of the Parc (Promoting Awareness Responsibility and Care) road safety group, said Christmas was an emotional time for those who had lost loved ones on the roads. Ms Gray’s husband, Stephen, died in a crash on St Stephen’s night in 2004.
Facebook page
She said many people sent the organisation photographs of loved ones who died on the roads to be published on the group’s Facebook page over Christmas.
“For some people it is their first Christmas without the person they have lost and they get great comfort out of seeing the person’s picture and they can send messages and others can send condolences,” she said.
The Road Safety Authority on Friday said a total of 133 people died on the roads last year, 13 fewer than in 2020, making it the safest year since such data was first collected in 1959. However, a spokesman said the figures were provisional and tended to change towards the end of the year.
