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AN IRISH BISHOP is pleading with road users to “take responsibility” and for families to have conversations with each other about road safety ahead of a ‘blessing of the roads’ ceremony tomorrow.
Bishop Fintan Monahan has described the number of deaths on Irish roads this year as a “national tragedy” and a “failure in both public policy and in our own personal driving behaviour”.
174 people died in 160 fatal collisions in the Republic of Ireland last year. Together with fatalities in Northern Ireland, more than 240 people died in collisions on the island in 2024.
The issue garnered significant public attention last year as the government, Road Safety Authority and gardaí faced pressure to take measures to tackle the high numbers.
In a statement this morning, Bishop Monahan said there is an “urgent need for a collective effort to reduce these preventable deaths”.
“It is crucial that families take responsibility for road deaths by discussing road safety at home. Every loss of life on our roads is a tragedy that impacts not just the individuals, families and local communities directly, but our entire society,” he said.
“Once a leader in road safety standards, Ireland now has one of the fastest-growing road death rates in Europe,” he added.
“So many of these tragic fatalities are preventable, and an improvement requires constant care, attention, and vigilance from all road users: motorists, motorcyclists, cyclists, or pedestrians, as well as effective partnership with the relevant civic authorities.”
The bishop is due to pray for the protection of road users at a ‘blessing of the roads’ ceremony tomorrow after Mass at the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Ennis, Co Clare.
He said that “the road safety record, both in the Republic and in the North, is of deep concern to me”.
“The pain felt by loved ones of those lost on roads is particularly acute as this loss of human life is entirely preventable.”
At the end of the year, RSA chief executive Sam Waide said a reduction in the number of fatalities from 181 in 2023 to 174 in 2024 was an “very modest but important step in reversing the high number of road deaths we’ve seen over the past two years”.
Minister of State with special responsibility for Road Safety James Lawless said his “department is focused on making our roads safer for everyone who uses them”, while Assistant Garda Commissioner Paula Hilman said gardaí have been “working around the clock every day of this year to help keep road users safe”.
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So sad …. I hope there family is at peace …
Their.
poor lady, still at 66, that’s an admirable way to spend your time, you could live for longer on the couch, but experience much less.
Very sad for her family. Its probably hard for me to grasp the enormity of the area she was hiking in, as I instinctively think ‘just keep going 1 direction, you’ll meet civilization eventually’
Even going in “one direction” becomes a problem in such a large wooded area unless you know how to navigate by the sun or stars. For some reason humans seem pre programmed to wander in circles.
Generally to do with your stride lengths being different, no? Without specific markers we can not walk in straight lines over time, we always gradually move more to the left or right (depends on the person)
So sad, at least her family got closure
She died alone. How awful for her. All the stories and reality documentaries that are shown on T. V. mounts up to nothing when you are alone in a situation such as this.
interesting story. If she had put some effort into having an App like viewranger that would track her location using GPS she would have found her way back to the trail.
You must have missed the part about her not having phone signal . . . Poor lady may she rest in peace.
Dave you’re a idiot.
Dave you muppet, most of those apps won’t function on the Appalachian trail. A compass and map will save you quicker than a crap app on your phone. Oh and have a heart while you’re at it.
you don’t need a phone signal, you have the maps on your phone and the GPS tells you where you are.
Isnt there a compass app for phones?
Hmm, Dave, I wonder did she pack a charger?
a charger would have helped, I wouldn’t even go out for a weekend without having a 3x charger. 80% of people doing the AT carry some kind of GPS these days and the trail itself is very well marked.
Thank you Captain Hindsight!! God bless you!!
Prize idiot.
Dave is right. I hike these trails and I have a app on my iPhone that shows your location by GPS. You won’t get a phone signal but the app works from satellite signals.
There’s no app to fix Dave’s problem.
Indeed and anyone who would trust their life to a cell phone app should not be on the trail. They are good indicators but not exactly safety specced equipment.
A good Personal Locator Beacon connecting with the COSPAS SARSAT is the only way to go. Phone sized radio beacons which will transmit for min 24 hours and cost only C.€250.
Tragic what happened to this lady but hopefully anyone reading this will consider purchasing one of these devices, if they are going into the real wild (or even up our own mountains)
Dave is not an idiot.
GPS has nothing to do with phone signals.
A GPS device communicates directly with satellites orbiting overhead.
A GPS device times the signals from known satellites and works out the exact position ion the ground.
The “constellation” of overhead GPS satellites covers all areas on the earth.
As you might have guessed…….it was once top secret American military technology.
Before mobile phones.
P.S.
This picture showy you what your GPS receiver connects to:
https://lh5.ggpht.com/AUlwKe40rbidPHxZvDKdv-Rt0JawyKJGLwOvSXio21J6Nlg6XxgDFcEM-yNuG1eQVA=h900
Good man Dave . You are a great wealth of information , if a bit insensitive . I am embarrassed for you.
I’ve hiked part of the application trail and while some parts are very well marked others others not. My biggest pet peeve there was the amount of times we ended up following trails but not the correct ones.Im guessing she must have taken a wrong trail somewhere because even in such a vast wilderness the main trail will have a steady stream of hikers. Im glad her family have peace. I wonder will they release the journal.
She was only three or four miles away from the trail.
About an hour’s walk.
She should have “walked the compass and returned if unsuccessful”.
If she marked the spot she was lost and systematically walk 5 miles from her lost point and then returned she could have covered “all points of the compass” (N,S,E,W,NE,SE SW,NW) and reached safety.
Clear thinking.
Tragically…a dirt cheap ($50) GPS device would have saved her…NO phone signal is required for GPS.
A cheap GPS receiver would tell her where she was anywhere on the earth to an accuracy of a meter or two.
That is so sad!! Very brave woman. It must have been very lonely and frightening for her. To know that you’re not getting out alive. Never to see your husband and daughter again!!
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