A NATIONAL EMERGENCY should be declared in response to the rising number of road deaths in Ireland, according to Sligo councillor Marie Casserly.

In a letter sent to the Taoiseach, Casserly has demanded “an urgent, coordinated, whole-of-the government response” to combat the surge in serious injuries and fatalities on roads.

It comes as the latest garda road policing figures show that 100 people have been killed in traffic collisions so far this year.

“If any other public health threat was killing and seriously injuring hundreds of people every year, the government would immediately mobilise every department and every available resource to tackle it,” Casserly asserted.

Speaking to The Journal, the councillor said that she sent the letter in response to the “car accidents every single weekend resulting in fatalities and life changing injuries”. 

“I thought if this was a virus, like when Covid was in the country, if that many people were dying from something, there would be a national emergency declared, and all government departments would work together to solve it”, Casserly said.

She noted in the letter that ”when it comes to road trauma, we continue to accept an unacceptable level of death and devastation as though it were inevitable”.

Casserly also urged the government to roll out proven road safety technologies that have helped reduce road deaths in other countries.

This includes using average speed cameras, automated red-light cameras and other intelligent enforcement technologies.

“Too much of a focus on e-scooters”

More than one third of all paediatric traumatic brain injury admissions to CHI at Temple Street in 2026 were related to e-scooters, according to data from Children’s Health Ireland.

In response, the government has moved to introduce strict regulations for e-scooters.

This includes a ban for under-18s, mandatory helmets and hi-vis clothing starting from August, and upcoming vehicle registration and licensing requirements.

Casserly said that although she supports the need for greater safety and supports families affected by e-scooter accidents, she believes that attention needs to be refocused back to cars as well.

“I just feel like there’s too much of a focus on the e-scooters and everyone calling for the banning… the legislation is there already, it just has to enforced”. 

“It is horrendous that children are in ICU as a result of falling off these scooters. But there are hundreds of children in ICU as a result of car crashes, and there’s no mention of that,” she told The Journal.

Casserly also highlighted this in the letter alongside calls for a national emergency on road deaths.

“We must not allow the national conversation to become focused solely on one mode of transport while overlooking the much greater tragedy unfolding on our roads every day”, she wrote.

The Journal’s reporting of the new Local Community Safety Partnerships is supported by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme.