THE ROAD SAFETY Authority has warned that progress in improving road safety is in “danger of going backwards” after 95 people died on Irish roads in the first half of this year.

That’s an increase of nine when compared to the same period last year and the highest number of road deaths since 2017.

After last night’s fatal crash which claimed two lives in Co Monaghan, there have been 100 deaths on Irish roads, an increase of 11 when compared to the same period last year.

Analysis of road traffic fatalities by the RSA as of 26 July highlighted that 23 young people aged 16-25 have lost their lives on the road.

In the first half of both 2021 and 2022 combined, there were 26 road deaths among this age cohort.

Almost half, 49%, of all road deaths occur between the hours of 8pm and 8am and three counties (Galway on 11, Mayo on 10, and Cork on 9) account for close to a third of all road fatalities in the first half of 2023.

The RSA is intensifying existing public education and awareness campaigns which target the main contributory factors for deaths, and serious injuries, and target high-risk groups.

This includes increased targeting of younger male cohorts, as well as upweighting regional advertising and education efforts to increase the impact in Cork, Galway and Mayo.

The RSA has warned that should current trends continue, as many as 168 lives will be lost on Irish roads this year.

Speaking today on RTÉ’s News at One, chairperson of the RSA Liz O’Donnell reflected on last night’s road deaths while several teenagers were on their way to a Debs ball in Co Monaghan.

“When a crash like this happens, it has an impact on hundreds of people, and in this case it definitely will,” O’Donnell told RTÉ.

“I’m thinking today of the parents of the children involved, their friends who were setting out to have a beautiful evening together before they embark on their adult lives.”

She noted that “anything I might say about the (road fatality) figures, obviously has nothing to do with the crash last night”.

O’Donnell said the preliminary analysis of the figures as of 26 July reveals that “certain trends emerging”.

The RSA chairperson said one of these trends is that “a quarter of all deaths were young people aged 16 to 25”.

She also pointed to “emerging” regional differences, with Cork, Galway and Mayo accounting for a third of road deaths.

O’Donnell voiced concern that “people have lost their momentum” and she appealed “to the general public to get back on track with us”.

“We are in danger of going backwards, and these figures call on us all to evaluate our own driving behaviour,” said O’Donnell.

“All of us as drivers have a duty of care to ourselves as drivers, to our passengers, to general road users.

“We the driver make those decisions whether to exceed the speed limit, whether to use a mobile phone while driving, whether to allow somebody to travel in your car without a seatbelt.

“All of those simple things can really change and reverse this trend.”

The RSA chairperson said the public was doing good work in reducing fatalities and serious injuries in recent years, but warned that “our research is showing that people are routinely speeding and people are breaking the speed limit routinely.”

She called for better enforcement of the speed limits, more visible policing on roads, and for more GoSafe vans, which O’Donnell described as a “huge deterrent that work”.

O’Donnell also called for a reduction in speed limits in urban and rural areas.

“We know that most people are killed on rural roads where the speed limit is 80 kilometres per hour,” said O’Donnell.

“That’s why we need a review of the speed limits. We need those speed limits taken down, particularly in urban areas and on those rural roads where most of the fatalities are happening.”

O’Donnell also said that the RSA is “working very closely with the government” and that this requires “an all of government response”.