Are Irish Roads Safer?

Senna

It was better news announced that our road deaths had dropped to 279 in 2008 (still alot). There was a thread awhile ago speculating the reasons, but just wondering if its noticeable in daily driving?
I done very few miles this weekend, but the few times i was on the road i seen driving that wouldn't look out of place on mondello. One example, a car passed out on a blind corner and just about got back in in time before a collision, my heart was racing just watching him, then on the next blind corner he passed out another car:rolleyes:

Are other factors bringing down our road death figures (more breath tests, better roads) and not the standard of driving?

mike65

The biggest catagory drop was pedestrians which suggests peeps and cars are no meeting as often in general traffic terms. I have wondered if this was down to more designed seperating of humans from vehicles in cities esp Dublin, it may have something to do with rural pubs closing down/keeping fewer hours. Or both.

S.I.R

irish roads aren't safe... safer then previous years yes, but theirs Alot of work to go, if we dropped to 200-210 in 20's we'd be doing ok...


but we're irish, we Cant do it.

Terrontress

Let's be honest. You have some absolutely shocking driving on some of the worst roads in Europe. People with no idea on how motorways work. A useless police force who prefer to sit at static points and wait for bad driving to come to them. Cars which are only tested every two years. A large percentage of drivers who still continue to drive without undergone a test and a taxation system which encourages people to hang on to left hand drive cars they have imported for as long as possible.

It's a wonder the road deaths are so low.

Beta Ray Bill

The Irish System of learning to Drive is rubbish.

think about it logically.

A person is a Learner and is not allowed to drive on a motorway. they pass their test and now suddenly are allowed to drive on a motorway? What has changed in the 30-45 min driving test that shows this person is able to drive on a motorway?

Now the government has responded to this phenomenon by saying that newly qualifies drivers can now only drive during the day, have no alcohol in their system at all (A rule I think should apply to everyone) and only drive tiny cars but yet no mention of actually training them to drive on a motorway and at night? Its another stupid Idea if you ask me.

Lastly
why can a cyclist jump on a bike and cycle on public road with absolutely no training? And then when one tries to under take a Cement mixer of all things, that we hear about how it was the truck drivers fault? Everyone knows to stay well away from trucks AND NEVER try and cut down the inside when its turning. The Cyclist clearly didn't know this and lost his Life because of it (My deepest condolences to his family and friends). but rather than the Cyclists Association (Or whatever they are called) insist on a road test for cyclists (which in my opinion is desperately needed), we need to re-train every truck driver in the country.

someone needs to give these people the wake up call! That Poor man lost his life last week in Dublin City Centre. There was no speed involved, just carelessness, that could have been totally avoided had he been made to sit a test before taking his bike to the roads of Dublin City Centre.

Cionád

Are there any statistics for the number of collisions? It would be interesting to know has that gone down much as I think much of the decrease is due to us driving newer/safer cars.

Alun

Cionád wrote: »

Are there any statistics for the number of collisions? It would be interesting to know has that gone down much as I think much of the decrease is due to us driving newer/safer cars.

Exactly. The actual number of people dying in RTA's is a very crude measure of how well we're doing in that regard. It's open to chance for a start, a couple of crashes with two cars and 4 occupants in each is more likely to result in multiple deaths than a single car "leaving the road" at 4 am. Also improve safety standards means more people survive.

Personally I'd like to see statistics not only on the number of incidents resulting in serious injury or worse, and not only death, but also on the number of people seriously injured as well. I mean, it's all very well reducing the number of deaths by 20 in a year, but if those same 20 people are confined to wheelchairs due to their injuries, then we haven't really made as much of an improvement as we like to think we have.

McSpud

Roads are better than they bused to be especially on the Inter city routes. When you can cruise along on a motorway you won't get frustrated by the granny ahead driving 40mph on the right side of the lane.

towel401

the roads are still fairly brutal down here in culchie land, far away from the pale. even parts of the N72 are very bad. lots of small narrow corners that need to be got rid of

really all the N routes should have a little divide in the middle of them but it costs too much to widen them. maybe if they sold all that billions of cocaine on the black market we'd be sorted

Rainman1

Agree with all of the above points, but as a motorcyclist with 25 years experience riding in rural areas, the answer to the question have the Irish Roads got Safer?, in my experience infinitely so, and I noticed the biggest change in driving habits occured when random breath testing came into force and people were being tested regularly in my neck of the woods. The problem now of course is, where are all the DD checkpoints gone ?, another initiative that was making a huge difference let fall by the wayside, I haven't seen a checkpoint in over eight months now, a year ago it was a weekly occurance and I can already see driving habits slipping back into the old routine.