Mounting fatalities on Irish roads mark ‘horrendous and devastating’ 2023

A “horrendous and devastating” 2023 on Irish roads led to 184 people dying in collisions, an almost 20 per cent increase on 2022 that few could have dared to predict.

It was also the highest fatality rate in nearly a decade (there were 192 in 2014) made worse by a substantial increase in the number of deaths among the young. By mid-December, more than 1,250 people had emerged from the aftermath of crashes with serious, often life-altering injuries, although that data is subject to review.

There were increases too in the numbers of pedestrians, passengers and motorcyclists who died, more than in recent annual statistic reports, as road safety officials struggled to process a deepening reversal on years of declines.

The experience of 2023 was so stark it forced a “pivot” in Government policy. Plans to follow other countries’ lead in slashing speed limits and new road traffic legislation, bolstered with promises of further policy initiatives to come and a boost in road policing numbers in 2024.

Six counties experienced double-digit death rates, three more than in 2022. In the heavily urbanised areas of Cork and Dublin 15 people died in each, and Galway and Mayo each recorded 13 and 12 respectively. The fewest deaths were on roads in Longford with two.

But at 16, Tipperary had the bleakest year and with two multifatalities, one quickly followed by the other, it came to represent a year of carnage.

On August 25th, siblings Grace (18) and Luke McSweeney (24), and friends Zoey Coffey (18) and Nicole Nikki Murphy (18) were killed when their car struck a wall on Mountain Road in Clonmel.

Thomas and Bridget O’Reilly and their grandson Tom who died in a road crash near Cashel in Co Tipperary

Days later in Cashel, just over 20km away, Thomas (45) and Bridget O’Reilly (46) were killed with their grandson Tom O’Reilly (3) when their car also struck a wall.

It was a snap moment in time, two incidents that drew the country’s attention sharply to road safety. However, a detailed annual data breakdown, issued by the Road Safety Authority (RSA), offers startling insight into just how bad the year was.

By mid-December, more people aged 25 and under had been killed than in each of the previous six years at least. Those aged between 16 and 25 alone, accounted for just over a quarter of all deaths.

Of the 184 deaths, 69 were drivers, 44 pedestrians, 34 passengers, 26 motorcyclists and eight cyclists. Three users of e-scooters also died as the devices continued to rise in popularity, offering early warning signs for the years ahead.

More passengers, pedestrians and motorcyclists died last year than in each of the previous five years, at least.

Death rates among the very young spiralled beyond recent comparisons. Twelve deaths between the ages of zero and 15 for the year was four more than the next highest of eight in 2020. For those aged 16 to 25, there were 47 deaths last year, almost double the rate of the next highest, 25 in 2018 and 2019.

RSA chairwoman Liz O’Donnell says 2024 must focus on securing more average and regular speed cameras as a policy priority to help avoid another harrowing year.

“You just have to dust yourself down and keep going,” she says. “We’re not an outlier. All over Europe, there has been an increase in fatal crashes since the end of Covid.”

She recalls how a “terrible hit” in August, the worst month, set the pace for the year that was, reaching an average of about 15 deaths a month. In nine of her 10 years at the helm, O’Donnell has seen the numbers fluctuate, but mainly fall, from a relative peak of 192 in 2014 to last year’s grim new marker. She will be keen to see that reversed before she leaves at the end of October.

“I really do believe we can turn this around,” she says. “We’ve done it before. We’ve brought road crashes and fatalities down by 66 per cent since the time the road safety [structure] was formed. If people remember back in the 1980s and the 1990s, there was 378 or 400 people being killed every year so we made a huge seismic change.”

Map showing where the 184 road deaths occurred in 2023

That may be but in the context of 2023, old victories are burning less brightly. RSA data also looked at the reality of those who suffered serious injuries up to December 10th, most among drivers (438), followed by pedestrians (274), cyclists (192), vehicle passengers (189) and motorcyclists (161 — specific injury data can be updated and amended).

For each life lost, there were about seven road users who suffered severe damage, physical and psychological.

The months of January, May, August and October proved to be far more deadly last year than in each of the previous five years.

Much emphasis has been placed historically on where in the country and on what type of roads people are more often victims. From 2018 to 2023, rural roads have been the location of an average of 73 per cent of deaths.

During 2023, the largest proportion of deaths occurred on regional roads at 36 per cent, according to provisional data to December 11th. That compared to national roads (27 per cent) and local roads (25 per cent). Just 4 per cent of those who died in crashes did so on the motorway network.

The RSA noted that seven in 10 fatal crashes occurred on rural roads where the speed limit was 80km/h or more.

Most deaths were among drivers and of those more than 80 per cent were male. Almost half (about 44 per cent) of pedestrians killed were 60 years of age or older.

The death rate among motorcycle drivers has steadily increased each year since at least 2018, reaching a high of 26 last year.

Despite a relative increase in death rates since 2019, the numbers have fallen from highs of 365 in 2006 and 192 in 2014.

Nevertheless, with Irish road safety officials determined to reach Vision Zero targets of no more than 72 fatalities by the end of the decade and to eradicate them 20 years later, they have some way to go to cut last year’s number to a 2024 target limit of 122.

“I think it’s been a horrendous and devastating year [2023]. We’ve regressed across many areas from a road safety perspective,” says Jack Chambers, Minister of State with responsibility for road safety, who has completed his first year in that role.

“There were warning signs earlier this year [2023] that we’re going in the wrong direction, and we’ve tried to pivot policy and enforcement back towards the areas that we know will work.”

However, even policy moves toward the end of last year including a 20 per cent increase in GoSafe speed detection vans could do little to reverse the trend. By the end of the final quarter, 48 people had died, a higher comparative number than each of the previous five years.

Chambers can only look to 2024 to see how further policy initiatives might arrest the growing death rate. A marquee initiative on which many hopes will hang can only begin to have an impact by the end of this year at best.

“From a policy area we have completely endorsed the speed limit review,” says the Minister, referring to a move that would mean, in most cases, 100km default speed limits cut to 80; 80 to 60; and, in built-up urban areas, 50 to 30.

It is unclear if there will be a political price to pay for such a drastic move — in Wales, the outgoing first minister Mark Drakeford had to vigorously defend his adoption of 20mph (32km/h) limits earlier in 2023, insisting they would save lives and millions of pounds to the health service.

“I think next year [2024] will be about bringing the baseline of speed limits back to a point where our road system in terms of local and rural roads will all be at a much safer baseline and that I think will start a wider conversation about safer speeds and speed limits not being a target,” says Chambers.

With guidance on the policy due to be published for local authorities in the first quarter of this year, and efforts to synchronise adoption, road signs might start to be replaced toward the end of 2024, but it is early days.

“I’d like to think we’d have most of the body of work progressed by this time next year [2024],” he says. He also believes there could be a “road policing dividend” from additional Garda recruitment.

He has the appearance of a Minister prepared to throw everything at a problem that continues to frustrate all efforts at a solution. He has no choice, as one year rolls nervously into another.

“We’ll have other policy initiatives through next year,” he says. “We want to reverse the trend we saw this year [2023].”

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