Just 28 of the 411 people killed on the Republic's roads in 2001 were young male car drivers between the ages of 18 and 24, according to figures released by the National Roads Authority yesterday.
The figures appear to contradict conventional wisdom that young men are the highest-risk category for motor fatalities - and the subsequent high rates of insurance premiums paid by drivers in the young male group.
The National Safety Council has targeted young male drivers with an advertisement "Slow Down Boys" as part of its road safety strategy, which also targeted drink-driving, speeding, and non-wearing of seat belts.
A spokesman for the National Safety Council said last night that the council had not received a copy of the National Roads Authority report and would study it before commenting.
However Mr Martin Long of the Insurance Industry Federation said "all of our research still maintains that this is the highest-risk category and this has been borne out by the findings of the Motor Insurance Advisory Board and others".
Mr Long said a young man in his early 20s represented a risk that was about eight times greater than that of a man aged 30.
He added that one explanation for the anomaly may lie with the number of non-fatal accidents.
Non-fatal accidents, in insurance terms, can be very much more expensive than fatal accidents.
This is because provision frequently has to be made for the ongoing needs of paraplegics and families deprived of the earning ability of a bread-winner.
The report, entitled Road Accident Facts 2001, also revealed that the cost of reported road accidents in 2001 was estimated at about €754 million.
The report includes details of road user categories, accident circumstances and locations, and concludes:
• the number of car users killed went down from 260 to 230, while fatalities among all other road user types rose.
• 304 males were killed compared with 103 females. (Note: gender of victim was not specified in all cases).
• 32 young car drivers (18-24) were killed in road accidents in 2001 and 28 of these were male.
• 89 pedestrians were killed in 2001.
• The number of pedal cyclists killed increased by two to 12 in 2001.
• The number of motorcyclist fatalities increased from 39 to 50 .
