LAST UPDATE | 31 Aug 2023

GARDAÍ HAVE WARNED people that driving is probably the most dangerous thing they will do with their day, as they urged people to be safer on the roads.

A senior garda has urged passengers that do not feel safe to tell drivers to slow down, and warned drivers not to use their phones while driving.

There have been 125 fatalities on Irish roads so far this year, an increase of 24 compared with the same period in 2022 and 38 more than the same period in 2019.

Around a third of those road fatalities in 2023 were among young people under the age of 25.

A three-year-old girl was the latest fatality after she was knocked down and killed in Co Laois.

Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan has said that there has been a significant increase in not only automotive but also pedestrian and motorcycle deaths, and that a focus on speed is vital.

The garda appeal came ahead of the first funeral for victims in last Friday’s tragic crash in Clonmel which claimed four lives. 

Nicole Murphy (18) will be laid to rest following her funeral mass at St John the Baptist Church in Kilcash near Clonmel at midday today.

There have been more than 600 “serious” road collisions, which means people had suffered life-changing injuries.

Although gardai were not speaking about any particular case, there has been an increased focus on road safety this summer following the deaths or injury of several young people.

“We take using our roads for granted sometimes,” Garda Superintendent Liam Geraghty said.

“Using the road is probably the most dangerous thing you will do on any given day.

“We ask everybody to please take care on the roads.”

When asked what had caused the increase in road deaths this year, Geraghty said there had been an increase in the number of collisions where there had been multiple fatalities.

He said: “Certainly across the border in Northern Ireland, we’re also seeing a very, very similar increase in road fatalities taking place over there.

“I haven’t seen full level research into why that is happening at the moment. But certainly our levels of drink and drug-driving seem to be increasing.”

Geraghty said that An Garda Siochana had carried out 27,000 checkpoints so far this year, and detected 5,100 people driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, with a further 105,000 people detected breaking the speed limit.

More than 12,500 people have been issued with fixed charge penalty notices for using phones, but Geraghty said a bigger problem was “distracted driving”.

He said that phones automatically connecting with a car, people watching videos while driving, and drivers being distracted by other things, such as by passengers in the car, are also a concern.

Geraghty added: “A key feature in any road traffic collision is speed.

“So the basic message will be to people to slow down.

“That does not mean don’t break the speed limit. It means slow down and drive at an appropriate speed to the weather, the vehicle, the road and traffic conditions that you find yourself in at any particular time.”

He said that 29 of the total number of people who had died on the roads this year were passengers.

Geraghty said: “People who have no say in what has actually happened in relation to road traffic collision – but they do have a say.

“If you’re the passenger in a vehicle, you have a say… you can speak up, you can ask the driver to slow down if you’re not feeling safe, you can ask them to drive a little bit more carefully.

“Drivers also need to take responsibility: it’s not just themselves, it’s the other people in their vehicle.”

He added: “It’s not a right to hold a driver’s licence, it’s a privilege.”

Minister Ryan said that he intends to bring proposals to reduce speed limits on Irish roads, which he said are among the leading causes of deaths.

The proposals will address issues such as speed limits, and will look to bring in 30km limits on urban roads for instance.

“I think that will be very important because speed is a huge factor in road fatalities and serious injuries.

“The more we can follow what’s called a safety system first approach where we reduce the risk by reducing unnecessary and inappropriate speeding, the better,” he said.