Road Collision Facts 2004 Report

Victor

http://www.nra.ie/News/PressReleases/htmltext,1947,en.html

Road Collision Facts 2004 Report - Published by the NRA
21st December, 2005

The number of deaths on Irish roads increased 12% in 2004 compared with data recorded in 2003.

The report “Road Collision Facts 2004” was compiled from information supplied by An Garda Siochána and provides extensive analysis of road accident data.

The report includes the following information:

A total of 374 people were killed in 334 fatal accidents on Irish roads in 2004.

The number of fatalities is up 12% from 2003, but remains the second lowest recorded number of fatalities since 1970.

The number of car user fatalities increased by 36 to 208 in 2004.

The number of pedestrians killed increased by 6 to 70 in 2004.

Motor cycle fatalities decreased by 5 to 50 in 2004.

The number of pedal cyclists killed showed no change with 11 in 2004.

The statistical breakdown of fatalities in 2004 is as follows: car users 208 (56%), pedestrians 70 (19%), motorcyclists 50 (13%), pedal cyclists 11 (3%) and other road users 35 (9%).

The cost of reported road accidents - fatalities and injuries- in 2004 is estimated at approximately €1.2 billion (based on the cost analysis outlined in 2004 Goodbody Economic Consultants report entitled ‘Cost Benefit Parameters and Application Rules for Transport Project Appraisal’).

Men accounted for 69% (259) of all fatalities in 2004. (Note: Gender of victim was not specified in all cases on accident report forms.) A total of 167 male and 42 female drivers were killed in 2004.

35 young drivers between the ages of (18-24) were killed in road accidents in 2004. (Twenty eight of these drivers were male.)

Ireland’s rate of road deaths in 2003 (the latest year for which comparable statistics are available), is 8.4 per 100,000 population. Ireland is ranked seventh out of the 15 earlier EU Member States.

‘Single vehicle only’ accidents were reported in 36% of all fatal road accidents. This represents an increase of three percentages on the 2003 figure.

The worst month for fatalities in 2004 was July when 38 persons died in 32 fatal accidents. October recorded the fewest fatalities – 22 persons killed in 20 fatal accidents – followed by March (25 fatalities) and May (26 fatalities).

The worst days of the week for fatalities in 2004 were Saturdays (84) and Sundays (70) while Tuesdays and Mondays recorded the lowest number of fatalities – 29 and 41 respectively.

A total of 97 persons (or 26% of total) were killed between the hours of 9.00 p.m. and 3.00 a.m. These are the hours most strongly correlate with drink driving.

Factors identified by the Gardai as contributing to accidents (where specified) were: driver (88%), pedestrian (8%), road (2%), environment (1%) and vehicle (<1%).

In fatal accidents involving two vehicles only, the most frequently cited contributory factor was ‘went to wrong side of road’ (40%).

http://www.nra.ie/PublicationsResources/DownloadableDocumentation/RoadSafety/file,1948,en.pdf

robfitz

I've collected some of the Road Collision Facts stats available since 1989 on my site.

Here's one of the tables:

Persons Killed and Injured
           1989    1990    1991    1992    1993    1994    1995    1996    1997    1998    1999    2000    2001    2002    2003    2004
Killed      460     478     445     415     431     404     437     453     472     458     413     415     411     376     335     374
Injured   8,803   9,429   9,874  10,188   9,831  10,229  12,673  13,319  13,115  12,773  12,340  12,043  10,222   9,206   8,262   7,867
TOTAL     9,263   9,907  10,319  10,603  10,262  10,633  13,110  13,772  13,587  13,231  12,753  12,458  10,633   9,582   8,597   8,241

2005 has turned out to be a bad year with 391 killed on the roads as of 2005-12-20. I don't think it's unreasonable for that number to go above 400 by the end of the year.

Peace

Interesting reading. Nice one Victor.

Charles Darwin

robfitz wrote:

I've collected some of the Road Collision Facts stats available since 1989 on my site.

Those are very interesting statistics and remind me of a recent conversation I had with a pal of mine, whose father is an orthopaedic surgeon.

Apparently the number of accident victims which orthopaedic surgeons now see is much higher than it used to be. Years ago, a lot of accident victims would arrive into hospital with serious internal injuries along with crushed limbs, etc. The first job was to deal with the internal injuries to keep the victim alive, leaving the crushed limbs for later. If the victim survived, their limbs could then be dealt with by the orthopaedic surgeons. If they didn't survive, there wasn't much point in patching up the limbs.

Nowadays, many accident victims arrive in hospital with crushed limbs but almost no internal injuries. This is down to airbags.

The figures you've posted illustrate this, assuming the figures don't just include people who die at the scene of the accident but do include those who died later in hospital. The number of deaths has decreased as a percentage of overall accident victims, while the number of injured people has increased as a percentage of overall accident victims.

Victor

Interesting nick, Charles.

Charles Darwin wrote:

The figures you've posted illustrate this, assuming the figures don't just include people who die at the scene of the accident but do include those who died later in hospital.

I think they use a 30-day cut off point, which may not be absolutely correct.

The number of deaths has decreased as a percentage of overall accident victims, while the number of injured people has increased as a percentage of overall accident victims.

While the rates (dead/capita, dead/vehicle, dead/vehicle km, etc.) have generally declined. It is also against an increase in some categories of accidents.

The total numbers are still high. In the months after penalty points were introduced, deaths were down 30-40% and we should be looking at achieving 200 deaths per year instead of 400.