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2012 sets new record for fewest road deaths in Ireland

By Gavan Reilly
RSA chairman Gay Byrne said the fall in road deaths was

RSA chairman Gay Byrne said the fall in road deaths was "something of which you should all be very proud".

Image: Graham Hughes/Photocall Ireland
01/01/13 9,119 Views 70 Comments

THE NUMBER of people who died on Ireland’s roads in 2012 is the lowest since records began, according to provisional figures published this morning.

Figures compiled by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) show that a total of 161 people were killed on Irish roads in 2012 – 25 fewer than in 2011, and down by 51 from 2010.

The figures mark the sixth year in succession that the number of road deaths has fallen – and the fifth year in succession that road fatalities have reached a record low.

The 2011 figures also mean the RSA exceeded its 2012 target for reducing road fatalities to 252, a target set in 2007, by 36 per cent. The overall number of road deaths has fallen by 56 per cent in the last five years.

The largest drop for 2012 came in the deaths of pedestrians, which fell to 28 from 47 the previous year. The number of driver fatalities was down one, to 78, while passenger deaths fell to 27, a reduction of six.

Eight cyclists were killed in 2012, down from nine in the previous year; the number of motorcyclist fatalities rose by one to 19.

The figures also include one death which falls outside these categories – three-month-old Grace Gilmore, who was being carried by her father at the time of an accident in Tuam, Co Galway, in October.

‘Something of which you should all be very proud’

Transport minister Leo Varadkar said the reduction in deaths “really comes down to the efforts of every single road user”.

“We can never forget those who lost their lives on the roads in 2012, but next year we can take it a step further,” the minister said, calling on all motorists to “change one thing about their behaviour on the roads next year. It will make a difference.”

RSA chairman Gay Byrne thanked the road-using public for the changes in their behaviour that had more than halved Ireland’s rate of road deaths.

“While one death is one too many, this is an extraordinary achievement and something of which you should all be very proud,” the veteran broadcaster commented.

“The challenge now is to build on this success. We have three more lives a week to save.”

Garda commissioner Martin Callinan, welcoming the figures, commented that the number of drink-driving arrests had fallen in 2012 for the fifth year in a row – while the number of mandatory alcohol checkpoints had increased.

“This clearly shows increased compliance by responsible members of the public,” he said.

Previously: RSA reports 78pc reduction in child road deaths

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Comments (26 Comments)

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  • Martin Stapleton 01/01/13 Report this comment

    Well done to all involved and hopefully the figure will stay dropping.
    RIP to those who list their lives in 2012.
    Just a thought for 2013…. could the RSA teach people to use roundabouts and the lanes on the motorways properly?

    Reply

  • Anne Clarke 01/01/13 Report this comment

    Now that road deaths have been addressed. How about putting the same emphasis and budget on deaths from suicide. Over 600 this year. Some road deaths also known to be down to suicide. Road deaths down but suicide going up. Money needs to be directed to mental health. When will this government start to respond to this tragedy.

    Reply

  • Gerard 01/01/13 Report this comment

    I know we all give out about guards and speed vans and road traffic laws but obviously all these things combined are helping to bring down fatalities.

    Reply

    • MVM 01/01/13 Report this comment

      That and the car manufacturers improving safety systems in cars or at least they claim,

    • John Cash 01/01/13 Report this comment

      And emigration.
      And unemployment.
      And this year we’ve lost a record amount of Irish, abroad.
      Although this is a good news story, our roads/drivers are really no better.

    • Creamy Hamstrings 01/01/13 Report this comment

      I agree john cash, less people here means less of everything including fewer road deaths. It’s only natural.

      What I would like to see is the number of road deaths expressed as a percentage of the number of cars on the road from 2000 – 2012. That would paint a much clearer picture of what’s reducing the fatalities

    • Lt Mr Worf 01/01/13 Report this comment

      Reasonable point John Cash. Wouldn’t have factored it in.

    • Mjhint 01/01/13 Report this comment

      John Cash a proper & legitimate point. This is the biggest contributor to the decrease in road deaths bar none. While I do agree with certain policies of road safety & we have moved things on in our attitudes the rsa continue to persecute professional drivers & the safest drivers on the road with the purpose of generating money. Since its establishment I have never once been stopped by the rsa in my car & I have travelled all over Ireland & as a professional I have been stopped on many occassions & questioned many times without prosecution but still I see this as a balance that needs to be addressed. What I would say to Gay Byrne is stop preaching to the converted & tackle the real issues of road safety including infrastructure short comings & secondary road conditions. Gardai & speed cameras on motorways only generate money not promote safety.

    • Ultan Quirke 07/01/13 Report this comment

      This is not due to emigration, the maths just don’t add up. If 45,000 people emigrated from Ireland during 2012 (that’s a rough figure, final figures are not yet available) That is a decrease of approximately 1.5% in the population. The number of fatalities decreased by much more than that. In rough terms, 161 fatalities is one per 25000 people in the state. If those 45,000 hadn’t emigrated, the total would be roughly 163, which would still be a substantial decrease from last year. Add to this the fact that many of those emigrating are young people who due to a lack of employment prospects were unable to run a car and your theory is entirely un-substantiated. The negativity from people on the journal who want to pour cold water on every good news story is shocking.

  • gordon thompson 01/01/13 Report this comment

    Well done everybody! Let’s keep the trend going in 2013 and slow down.life is way to short…

    Reply

  • Sheila Larkin 01/01/13 Report this comment

    There are people still with their families who otherwise wouldn’t be if it wasn’t for the road safety initiatives started six years ago.

    Reply

  • Ian 01/01/13 Report this comment

    Are there fewer, or more survivors of serious crashes with serious life changing injuries? Just because more people are surviving crashes doesn’t mean that they are walking away from crashes with a few cuts and bruises.

    Reply

  • Brendan Cunningham 01/01/13 Report this comment

    Drove past the spot where the Gilmore girls died this morning. Still heartbreaking. A floral shrine like that will always remind you to slow down.

    Reply

  • Piarais Mac An TSaoir 01/01/13 Report this comment

    As previously mentioned Road Traffic levels are down about 20% or more since 2005-6 peaks. Roads are being upgraded all the time. Cars are getting safer – a 2013 car is significantly safer than a 2003 car for example. Peoples attitudes towards drinking+driving have changed. Some would successfully argue that the most at risk group (young males) have emigrated en-masse. I’m not being a grouch here bit it pisses me off to see a Minister expecting a round of applause for doing his job properly.

    Reply

  • Val Conlon 01/01/13 Report this comment

    Well done to all who works at improving road safety. And a prayer goes out to all the people who have died on our roads in 2012.

    Reply

  • Nellysroom 01/01/13 Report this comment

    it’s also been the worst year for the pub trade.

    Any correlation there.

    Reply

  • KeepItReal 01/01/13 Report this comment

    It doesnt matter what any article is about on this, it just always turns into a whinge about unemployment , the banks , immigration bla bla bla.

    Suck it up & take responsibility for your own finances , stop blaming everyone else if you spent too much & get on with it , jesus wept ….

    Reply

  • Eileen Gabbett 01/01/13 Report this comment

    Fantastic News . Long may it continue. Happy and safe driving to everyone. Well done to the RSA too.

    Reply

  • gary o brine 01/01/13 Report this comment

    Gaybo less seen and heard the better

    Reply

    • Richard Fennelly 01/01/13 Report this comment

      Yeah a man who never sat a driving test and was given a full licence in the amnesty and refused to do a test as an example is very hard to take serious as a rep of the RSA

  • Brian Horgan 01/01/13 Report this comment

    Now get rid of the boy racers in their suped up lawnmowers and the road deaths will fall by another fifty percent. These cars aren’t even street legal by NCT standards.

    Reply

    • amy kirwan 01/01/13 Report this comment

      There’s always one :)

    • Barty 01/01/13 Report this comment

      Brian it’s not the boy’s with the pimped out cars you need to worry about some of the girls are 10 times worse and as for female drivers using mobile phones especially doing the school runs. You pass any public house with a line of cars parked outside are they all drinking soft drinks? Zero tolerance on drinking and driving. All cyclists to adhere to the rules of the road and be insured.

    • HoganusRex 01/01/13 Report this comment

      Great idea. Collecting bicycle insurance premiums from 5 year old kids will have a positive impact on Uncle Gaybo’s numbers.

    • Aoife Quinn 01/01/13 Report this comment

      There is far less of these eye sores on the road since the recession kicked in. A lot of these lads used to work in construction and now they’re either gone or can’t afford to run a car. I for one am delighted they have decreased in numbers, loud, stupid looking cars.

  • KeepItReal 01/01/13 Report this comment

    Uncle gaybo an irish treasure
    Not
    More like a pest

    Reply

  • Johnny Reynolds 01/01/13 Report this comment

    Can gaybo just fcuk off quietly please

    Reply

  • John 01/01/13 Report this comment

    Not using directional indicators should be made an offence as ignoring to indicate particularly at roundabouts can be very dangerous.

    Reply

  • amy kirwan 01/01/13 Report this comment

    Has the significant decrease in actual traffic been taken into account? Less road users, less fatalities.

    Reply

    • Declan Byrne 01/01/13 Report this comment

      Is there less road users? .

    • amy kirwan 01/01/13 Report this comment

      Absolutely, it is quite evident.

    • Elaine O'Callaghan 01/01/13 Report this comment

      How’s it quite evident? Personally I haven’t noticed any difference in traffic volumes….

    • amy kirwan 01/01/13 Report this comment

      Less people working, less people commuting, less people owning a car. Emigration. It is not merely a personal observation (although I do travel 25k miles annually)

    • Johnny Reynolds 01/01/13 Report this comment

      The sight of there being no bumper to bumper gridlock in cork city every morning and evening tells me that there’s less traffic. You could even point out that there’s less buses

    • Paddy Lambe 01/01/13 Report this comment

      Obviously with massive unemployment and mass emigration there are less cars on the road. The real fall was in pedestrians which means the RSA should shift their focus onto these areas an tackle the poor facilities available for crossing the road! The root cause for every accident needs to be addressed to develop a plan of action. Do-ing people on major roads and motorways for noise related speed limits just doesn’t cut it any more and with the mass exodus of people plus the reduction in people working the figures are welcome but just not very impressive

    • Carl Gillen 01/01/13 Report this comment

      Traffic volume is rarely a factor in road deaths. Very often they seem to involve a single vehicle on country roads in the early hours.

    • Paddy Lambe 01/01/13 Report this comment

      Simple stats. Reduce the pool and the stats will change. If the car is not tgere to have the accident it will not happen. Especially in small country areas where economic impact is greatest. However I imagine that the pedestrian fatalities (the major bulk of reduction) are urban.

    • Elaine O'Callaghan 01/01/13 Report this comment

      But what I was referring to was that traffic volumes this year (taking into account unemployment etc) aren’t any lower than it was last year or year before so don’t believe this is the reason for less road deaths this year.

    • Paddy Lambe 01/01/13 Report this comment

      87000 people left the country and many lost jobs

    • Michael J Collins 01/01/13 Report this comment

      Paddy
      Where did you get the stats on emigration? I also thought the number of people in employment held steady on the previous year?

    • amy kirwan 01/01/13 Report this comment

      Taken from CSO I’d imagine, the following is quoted from their press release

      “Emigration from Ireland in the twelve months to April 2012 is estimated to have increased to 87,100 from 80,600 in the year to April 2011, while the number of immigrants is estimated to have fallen marginally to 52,700 from 53,300 over the same period. These combined changes resulted in an increase in the net outward migration from 27,400 in the year to April 2011 to 34,400 in the year to April 2012.”

    • Colm Durkan 01/01/13 Report this comment

      In terms of traffic fatalities, 27.4k couldn’t have a significant effect when you take into account the number of road users and the percentage drop in fatalities.
      Well done to the RSA for working hard on this, and to everyone for being more responsible on our roads. Hope this figure keeps going down.

    • Paddy Lambe 01/01/13 Report this comment

      The stats are there however, how they are read needs to be done with caution. The outward migration is generally a demographic that are at high risk of road fatalities being young. The majority are those who have been made unemployed or have come off the dole. The fact that figures of unemployment have remained steady means that as many people have been sacked as have left the dole que and emigrated. The demographic of inward migrants is unknown but is likely to consist of families where there are only one or two who are drivers. Another point is that we are likely to have less younger drivers as those who come out of college with no job are less likely to buy a car.

      I am not saying that the measures adopted have not plate a part, but so have the better roads, shorter journeys, better cars, car testing etc. outward migration and unemployment is also a factor. This plus the fact that the main drop was related to pedestrians means that less emphasis needs to be placed on the revenue collection operation of pointless speeding fines penalising those doing a couple of km over the limit, especially when the limit was not developed for safety. The RSA need to concentrate on the actual current cause of fatalities, whatever that may be.

    • Sluazcanal 01/01/13 Report this comment

      I remember when road fatalities was over 300, its now almost half of that. I dont think half our population has emigrated.

    • Ciara May 01/01/13 Report this comment

      Ok ur talking about the amount of people that left the country, fair enough but u also need to remember all those that got on the road for the first time.. Aswel as that just because there is a lot of people unemployed does not mean less traffic. People who don’t work do drive so those unemployment figures are pointless when it comes to traffic.

  • Declan Byrne 01/01/13 Report this comment

    Good to see attitudes changing which obviously resulting in lives been saved. I dont think garda speed checks or speed vans have much to do with saving lives though. Maybe I am wrong though.

    Reply

  • Mark McGrath 01/01/13 Report this comment

    Nobody probably wants to admit this either but safer cars surely play a part too. ESP and ABS being standard on all new cars surely has an affect on less fatalities. Cars being built and launched this year are safer than those cars being built and launched 5 years ago.

    Reply

  • Mike Clinton 01/01/13 Report this comment

    Hope 2013 breaks all records for road safety and more lives spared on the roads.
    The RSA ,Garda and responsable drivers, cyclists are doing really great but if only there was a concentration on drink/drive .
    The trend has moved to drivers going into the pub from work (about 6-7 and driving home about 10).
    That way they are off the road before the late checkpoints and clear in the morning.

    Reply

  • Paddy 21/01/13 Report this comment

    Fair play. Hopefully the trend continues for this yr

    Reply

  • Siobhain O Brien 22/01/13 Report this comment

    the figure may go up now if Kerry go ahead with their drinking allowance increase…

    Reply

  • Scrap Croke Park1 01/01/13 Report this comment

    This has little or nothing to do with the RSA. Road fatalities have been steadily falling since 1970 (page 13 of the RSA annual report linked below) long before that Quango appeared in 2006 due to a combination of less cars, better motorways, extra garda enforcement.

    It should be scrapped and the 17 million it spends on staff costs annually could be saved if these people were laid off as they would be in the private sector.

    http://www.rsa.ie/Documents/About%20Us/RSA%20ANNUAL%20REPORT%202011.pdf

    Reply

  • Sandra Fitzgerald 01/01/13 Report this comment

    Reasons being mass emigration numbers on our roads reduced! And no ones mentioning the huge hike in suicides, and hardly any money being pumped into that area. pat yourselves on the back for statistics that would have happened any way without your big pay outs. Egothistical bastards the lot!

    Reply

  • Ben Gunn 01/01/13 Report this comment

    Whilst it is heartening to see the continueing improvement in the numbers it is too early to start congratulating ourselves. We are still some 20% pro rata worse than our nearest neighbour. Much done but more to do.

    Reply

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