A NEW STUDY from the Road Safety Authority (RSA) has found that all 105 motorcyclists who died as a result of incidents on Irish roads in 2019-2023 were men.

Nine out of every ten serious injuries to motorcyclists in the same period were also men. 

The RSA, alongside the Garda Roads Policing Unit and Junior Minister Jack Chambers were out for a photocall this morning in order to raise awareness of road safety, and in particular the risk to motorcyclists ahead of the June Bank Holiday weekend. 

The RSA further found that 13 road fatalities have occured on the June Bank Holiday weekend, as well as 77 serious injuries. 

The report found that almost one third of collisions that resulted in motorcyclist deaths took place at junctions, with 58% of those happening specifically at T-junctions. 

Sam Waide, the Chief Executive of the RSA, said that it will be rolling out a social media campaign to advocate for vigilance and safe driving on our roads this weekend, and for both motorists and motorcyclists to be more aware of the other on the roads. 

“June is a really dangerous period, as we enter summertime, the risk of someone losing their lives on the road increases,” he said. 

He said that ten motorcyclists have died so far this year, and in general, there have been eight more deaths on Irish roads this year, as of this morning, compared to this time 2023. 

However, Waide said there was a reduction in road deaths in April and May, which authorities are hoping will continue due to the impact of increased roads policing enforcement and educational campaigns. 

He said that Government is bringing forward legislation to make drug testing mandatory at the scene of serious collisions, which should act as a deterrent, as Gardaí are seeing an overall increase in the rate of drug-driving happening in Ireland. 

Minister Jack Chambers appealed to road users to ensure that they are not the cause of a collision this weekend that could leave “family members and friends devastated”. 

He said that there needs to be an increase in dedicated Roads Policing Unit Gardaí, and increased recruitment into the unit, but that he believes that the new garda policy of having frontline officers do 30 minutes of roads policing during their shifts each day will also have a positive impact. 

GRA executive committee member garda James Morrisroe.

The Garda Representative Association has said that the 30 minutes policy has been introduced in order to produce better “statistics”, but in reality it is not what is needed to improve road safety enforcement in Ireland. 

At the GRA conference this year, Garda and leadership member James Morrisroe said: “If you look at the dedicated roads policing unit from 10, 12 years ago, it had roughly 1200 members, that has almost halved over the years. To say you will make frontline gardaí do 3o minutes of roads policing – which they are already doing by the way – won’t make any meaningful difference”. 

“It’s part of a shift towards a focus on statistics, when we need to focus on recruitment and resources,” he added. 

Morrisroe said that there is a lack of focus on community policing, and that roads policing has suffered as a result of centralisation. 

“The problem is there could be a crash in Belmullet in Co Mayo, and someone from Longford is being dispatched to that scene,” he said. 

“There is a correlation between the increase in road deaths and the reduction in dedicated roads policing unit gardaí, that’s the reality,” the Garda added.