OVER 900 PEOPLE have been seriously injured on Irish roads so far this year, according to figures from An Garda Síochána. 

Provisional Road Safety Authority (RSA) data has revealed that between 2018 and 2022, there were approximately 10 serious injuries for every fatality on Irish roads.

From 1 January to 24 September this year, a total of 915 serious injuries were recorded in Ireland by An Garda Síochána and reported in official statistics by the RSA. 

The RSA’s annual conference gets underway today, addressing national and international road safety delegates and medical experts on the topic of serious injuries. 

New research presented by the RSA at its conference has shown that the number of road users admitted to hospital between 2014 and 2021 as in-patients in Ireland following a collision is significantly higher (15,677) than the number of seriously injured casualities recorded by gardaí and reported in official statistics by the RSA (8,977). 

This research was carried out by the RSA with the HSE and Trinity College Dublin, following recommendations of the European Commission to all Member States to formally report on serious injuries using hospital data, as a complement to police data.

According to the RSA, the discrepancy between hospital and police data has been observed internationally and can be more pronounced when looking at cyclist serious injuries.

This was the case in Ireland, following the findings of this research project, where 2.4 times more cyclists were hospitalised following a road traffic collision, compared to numbers recorded in official figures recorded by An Garda Síochána and reported by the RSA.

The RSA explained that there are many reasons why hospital figures are higher than police-reported figures.For example, if an incident was not formally reported to police, or if a serious injury only became apparent in the days immediately following a collision.

For cyclists specifically, this new study noted that 63% of all cyclists hospitalised sustained their injuries in single cyclist collisions, where no other vehicle was involved.

Minister of State for Transport Jack Chambers has welcomed the report.

“This type of evidence-based cross-agency collaboration is critical to supporting us in achieving the ambitious reductions in serious injuries committed to in the government Road Safety Strategy,” Chambers said. 

“Having an accurate account of the serious injuries that people experience as a result of a road traffic collision is central to road safety,” he said, adding that “this will inform road safety policy as well as feed into measures to improve post-crash response, infrastructure, and technology”.