The 184 deaths recorded on the Republic’s roads in 2023 represent a worrying acceleration in the reversal of the long downward trend in such fatalities since the 1990s. The figure, an almost 20 per cent increase on 2022, is the highest in almost a decade. Each one of these deaths is a tragedy that could have been averted. And for each life lost, there were about seven other road users who suffered severe physical and psychological damage.
Despite last year’s figures, Ireland’s per capita road fatalities remain lower than most of our European neighbours. The steep fall in road mortality which occurred over the past 30 years can be ascribed to a range of factors: safer vehicles; better roads; life-saving medical innovations; changes in social attitudes towards dangerous behaviour, especially drink-driving; better education; more active enforcement of traffic laws and stricter penalties for those who breach them. As a result, many hundreds of lives were saved and thousands were spared the heartbreak of losing loved ones. The trend was even more remarkable given the dramatic increase in the number of vehicles on the roads.
The Government had committed to continuing that momentum with its Vision Zero programme, which has a target of no more than 72 fatalities annually by 2030 and their complete eradication by 2050. Those ambitious objectives now look unlikely to be met.
What has caused the rise of recent years? As with the previous drop in deaths, a number of different factors are almost certainly at play. Road safety organisations have pointed to a decline in the number of Garda personnel assigned to traffic duties. The Minister responsible for road safety, Jack Chambers, has acknowledged this and promises a “roads policing dividend” from increased Garda recruitment this year. That is clearly one important part of the jigsaw, along with a rise in the number of speed detection cameras, which has also been promised. A crackdown on repeat provisional licence holders who fail to take the driving test is in the pipeline, while recent reports in this newspaper on loopholes in the driver disqualification system should also be addressed. Some data suggest an increase in drug-driving may be a contributory factor that requires specific attention.
More broadly, the plan to reduce speed limits by 20km per hour on roads across the country will only yield meaningful results if properly enforced, particularly on the rural roads where most deaths occur. Such reductions may be unpopular with some drivers, but the connection between speed and fatalities has been definitively established. Meanwhile, sophisticated camera and in-car technologies offer the opportunity to influence driver behaviour positively in the years ahead. With the requisite political will and with broad community support, there is no reason why the current negative trend cannot be reversed.