Increase in road deaths - RTE tonight at 9:35pm

MarkN

as above…

Damien360

They will blame speed again but I honestly think it has to be mobile phone distractions as I see this daily. It is an epidemic. The amount of people emailing/texting while driving is huge. You don't need to see the phone, look at the faces of the people buried into their lap. I have had a few close calls on N roads with cars coming the opposite way drifting out of lane. On the motorway, they tend to slow down and annoy but at least they are travelling in the same direction.

Seth Brundle

It is surely an absence of any meaningful form of enforcement. The RSA's habit of pleading with drivers to slow down, etc clearly doesn't work.

Now that garda numbers policing the roads is on a downward curve, the death and injury numbers are on a similar but upward curve!

Whocare

Everyone on phone that biggest problem. should do what do in UK have police man in truck looking down on traffic ect Everyday i see people playing with phone (truck driver myself) . Fatal crash in cork today truck crashed into back of car wouldn't be surprised if was playing with phone aswell

ednwireland

don't forget cars that have an ipad glued to the centre console instead of proper controls.

NIMAN

THe elephant in the room will be completely ignored, as it would be in bad taste to say it.

With so many single vehicle crashes, its obvious that people are driving too fast, or badly, or using a phone, or under the influence.

Did I hear today that there's an extra 400,000 cars on the roads? Can't remember the time scale, but add 400k cars to roads, you're likely going to get an increase in crashes?

I'd say the figures haven't increased pro rata, but that doesn't fit the narrative.

Get Real

I'm actually surprised tbh at such a twist on things by RTE

I certainly don't think it's any harm to constantly strive to lower road deaths/injuries mind you.

But Ireland is below the EU rate of road deaths per 100,000. In fact, we're in the lowest 5 out of 27 countries.

It's not nice to see increases of course. But imagine 5 countries as smokers. 4 of them smoke 20 a day and have reduced to 15. "Mr. Ireland" smokes 10 a day and increases to 13.

That could be painted as "Irelands smoking rate increases by a third while rest of group reduces smoking by 25%"

Even though, on average, the other countries still smoke more.

I'll also say, that's not to downplay the seriousness of the topic, and the absolute devastation deaths on our roads cause.

But, this portrayal. It's a common misunderstanding/you'll hear chat in cafes etc "we're the worst for road deaths". We're actually among the leaders in terms of road safety. Other European countries have treble our death rates.

As per the smoking example above, it creates headlines that imply otherwise.

Edit: to add source. We're lower than Germany, Spain, France, half that of Greece. And lower than 20 odd other countries I won't list.

https://transport.ec.europa.eu/news-events/news/road-safety-20640-people-died-road-crash-last-year-progress-remains-too-slow-2023-10-19_en

Kaisr Sose

It will be interesting to see what's presented. For my part the cause is one or a combination of these

• Speeding
• Mobile phone use (including having live football or streaming while driving)
• Drugs
• Alcohol
• Poor driving (cutting corners/over taking against oncoming traffic /approaching blind bend
• More non-Irish qualified drivers on roads (licence exchange) who do t know or care about our driving legislation/rules of the road

All the above against a backdrop of almost zero roads policing from 2009/2010 onwards.

Damien360

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122006737#Comment_122006737

Gardai spend their too much time watching for speeding on motorways and not on the smaller roads. For context, yesterday I drove from Kildare all the way to Limerick and later that day back again. Out of curiosity, I set my cruise control to 124kmph, so 120 on GPS. I barely had to slow. But in that time, I counted the cars that overtook me. A total of 4 westbound and on the return eastbound 6 cars. Hardly an epidemic of speeding on the motorway. I saw two unmarked cars eastbound on entrances and one marked car westbound later that day. Quite a few of the armed gardai cars (X5 and Q7's) on other side going east close to Limerick but not doing speed checks.

Now the M50 today was stupid but not for speeding, just really poor driving discipline. Lane jumping, no indicators, late exiting, queue jumping with very late braking to dive in. That's not a motorway, despite it's designation. Too many close exits. Not a single garda car and I drove the length of it north to south.

We don't police the roads correctly as it's all about speed and that is not the main issue at all. We are much slower drivers in general than our UK or NI cousins on their own road network.

martingriff

There ismany reasons not just one speed, phones and lack of enforcement are 3.

It seems som people feel invincible in a car and it can't happen to me.

But you also see in everyday people don't care about the rules such as going through red lights slowing down going to pedestrian crossing. Stopping in yellow crossed boxes. People are getting more aggressive in there driving it seems

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122006750#Comment_122006750

Yep, it's not just phones - we got a new VW recently and was surprised at the amount of buttons that can be fiddled with, screen views that can be changed, menus for this, that and the other.

Re this programme tonight, I read earlier that the RSA are presiding over a dysfunctional system of communication between the Gardai and local authority road engineers. Whereby the circumstances of accidents for the past several years cannot be exported from the PULSE system due to GDPR legislation. That the LA do not receive information that might cause them to fix certain road issues. If this is true, it's fairly scandalous and the entire board of the RSA should go.

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122006773#Comment_122006773

I have no doubt all these will be mentioned....except the last.

Don't honestly think that's an issue. Nearly all the road deaths appear to be white Irish people.

magicbastarder

I had not heard of that GDPR issue. Smells of bull to me, they're just hiding behind it as an excuse. What sensitive info is there behind letting a council know where crashes occurred?

As pointed out in this article, they stopped sharing the info about two years before GDPR came into force.

https://irishcycle.com/2024/04/03/as-injuries-mount-road-safety-authority-hadnt-shared-crash-data-with-councils-for-eight-years/

caze

Speed and phones are not the only factors and the RSA / Guards and government need to focus on the bigger picture.

Driving standards have dipped considerably, Over the past week I have witnessed the following personally…..

Joining N7 inbound at Citywest, Ford Fiesta in front of me on slip road attempts to join mainline at about 40KPH. Normal traffic flow on N7, truck had to take evasive action to middle lane to avoid them, several vehicles having to brake hard. Fiesta driver probably thinks they are a safe driver, not the first time I have seen the likes of this.

N7 inbound just before Naas saturday evening, Silver Nissan Almera reversing along the hard shoulder.

N7 inbound at Red Cow, Monday midmorning, Transit Van in outside lane heading towards town, decides last minute they want to go M50 northbound, cross 4 lanes in about 100 Metres to make that slip, again several cars having to brake hard to avoid contact.

Car and tyre maintenance, some people are absolutely clueless when it comes to this. See picture attached. This was the state of both front tyres on a Honda CRV with child seats in the back. How can anyone think its acceptable to drive a car on tyres like that is disgraceful.

IMG_20231126_120242.jpg

StonedRaider

In the past 4 months, 2 people have died not far from me. Both on the same stretch of road, about a mile apart. Both single vehicle incidents, in the early hours of the morning. One was on the way home from a wedding. The other returning from a uni dinner night out.

In the past 20+ years driving in this country, I have never been stopped or maybe if I better said, have never come across random breath test checkpoints.

Charles Babbage

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122006793#Comment_122006793

They need camera enforcement on the M50, especially in the vicinity of junctions. That it where the cutting in is occurring, both people cutting across lanes to exit or people bulldozing their way into traffic lanes although the auxiliary lane allows you merge anywhere in the next 2Km. Modern AI should be able to tag prospective offences for review by a human.

Montage of Feck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122006748#Comment_122006748

There now a whole generation of phone zombies out there. Completely spaced out of it and plugged into the matrix through their airpods.

Beechwoodspark

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122007062#Comment_122007062

Drink involved?

freshpopcorn

JOne example,

Sometimes when I click into TikTok I see videos of young guys generally

having their cars seized, laughing at Gardai, pictures of summons, etc. It's all made a joke off.

Other times I've seen videos of guys acting the maggot on the roads and then the comments under it will be RIP Legend and that person has died in a road accident.

This RSA CEO fella is clueless " it's not about GDPR,it's about GDPR"

Kaisr Sose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122006827#Comment_122006827

I agree it's mostly Irish people. I have encountered many non nationals who just don't know our rules of the road though. They (along with any Irish person) pose a risk to other road users, and themselves.

mikeecho

3 more specs

9 static cams

By the end of the year

Trampas

I was walking one of kids to school today and two of 3 cars stopped at lights and drivers heads buried into their phones. Wasn’t even a glance but fingers going tapping away. Phones I’d say is the biggest issue across all groups. Complaints about road conditions. Yes they don’t help but what ever happened to drive to the road conditions than hitting speed targets. Anything about tyres on the cars? Probably not

chicorytip

I hope this programme highlights dangerous and illegal behaviour by both scoooter riders and cyclists which is endemic on our roads. Never mind mobile phone use.

Inspiring it was not by RSA/or the 5-O.

Fairly simple to fix road death issues.

Lots more Garda, lots and lots of cameras for speed, red light jumping, phone usage, tax insurance etc.

More random Garda checkpoints. For drink/drugs.

Combined withenforcemnet of current laws, lights tyres etc.

GDPR is just noise and distraction.

More Garda will resolve lots of other society problems. But thats for another thread & that involves proper sentences for offences.....Will never happen

Kaisr Sose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122007873#Comment_122007873

Well the scooters are illegal in the roads to start with. Parking that point though as the neither of those groups are responsible for the increase in deaths, though some are victims.

Motor vehicles and specifically, their drivers, are responsible for many deaths, and have to be the focus of any measure.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122007873#Comment_122007873

The focus is on deaths on the roads, how many deaths have scooter riders/cyclists caused?

Jinglejangle69

Caught using a phone should be an automatic ban like drink driving.

And it’s much easier to police.

CH3OH

Watching on +1

How in the name of God did Sam Waide get the job?

And did Drew give Paula a job?

The Gardai are absent from the roads and drivers know that there is very little chance of getting caught.

Eibhir

I agree with the points made here.

Texting, speeding, poor drivers, drugs, alcohol.

I was turning left at a roundabout this morning and this spaced out teenager comes from the left on a scooter as I'm about to turn. These youngsters haven't a clue about the rules of the road.

Also give yourself adequate time for your journey. Rushing is never good.

Atlantic Dawn

The numbers of drivers not surrendering their licences when told to is comical, why is there not a bench warranty out for them? I assume (probably wrongly) that insurance companies are given these details and not allowing policies to be on their books for these disqualified licences.

freshpopcorn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122007992#Comment_122007992

It's better to a late Mr Jones than The late Mr Jones.

Eibhir

Agree. Back in 1997 I passed my driving test and my instructor said you can't afford to take your eyes off the road for a second. And that's still, and always will be, the case.

mikeecho

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122007986#Comment_122007986

Paula is ex RUC , i mean PSNI.

One of Drews croonies

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122007986#Comment_122007986

"And did Drew give Paula a job?"

That's sectarianism and sexism all rolled into one

Heckler

Everyday I see it with the phones. Car in front at the lights you can see the head down. Lights go green no moving BEEP. And you can see the alarm in their face as they look in their rearview. Idiots. 2 cars go through when it should have been 4 or 5. Same if I'm first at the lights. Look in the rearview mirror. The head is down. Lights go green I'm well through the lights and gone and some clown is still sitting there holding up the traffic.

mikeybhoy

Because speeding fines are a revenue generating exercise not a road safety exercise. Think about it most of the road deaths are in rural areas but yet most of Garda checkpoints are in Dublin.

Kaisr Sose

.... agree with post above ...and then to just make it worse some plough the on clear red in frustration and block junctions etc ..

So much poor driving, so little enforcement

(Homage to a certain W Wonka and Batman)

I wonder if some blame is on car manufacturers building cars that are kitted out like a home office.

I was looking into CarPlay the other day and I noticed this. Between this kinda craic and Tesla’s etc with what’s basically a tablet in the centre console how are drivers going to pay attention to the road with all these visual distractions?

when you have distractions right in your face coupled with technology like adaptive cruise control I can easily imagine drivers becoming less attentive while relying on the tech to keep them safe.

My last car (Qashqai) had a reversing sensor that I became far too reliant on. One occasion I was reversing but there was a bollard behind me that was out of the sensors FOV I guess and I ended up reversing into because the beeps weren’t warning me I was too close. Completely stupid on my part but it was just relying on the tech too much and not being careful enough.

Current car has no such features and nor did my first car and never had that issue. Maybe it’s just me but I doubt I’m the only one who had a bad time relying on sensors and other tech.

I think reliance on these types of things that are meant to make driving safer may often have the opposite effect when drivers become too distracted or dependent. Coupled with big flashy screens as I say you don’t really need a mobile phone to distract.

pair any of that with excessive speed or carelessness and you have an absolute disaster waiting to happen.

SuperBowserWorld

People are moving out of the real world. They can't distinguish between Tik Tok and the real world. People's patience and concentration has gone to hell.

Also, people **** drive everywhere. There are a lot more journeys and a lot more people in cars.

I swear to god, I've neighbours who I've never actually seen walking from their houses. And these are neighbours with dogs. And there are footpaths and long beautiful walks outside their front doors. They actually drive somewhere to take the dog for a walk.

🤣🤣🤣

Eibhir

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122008084#Comment_122008084

The question arises who in the name of fcuk do they have to be in constant text message with at that hour of the morning 😅

Eibhir

Maybe Paula gave Drew a job first.🤭

n.d.os

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122006750#Comment_122006750

Please don't start with this. Its not a thing.

so drew harris has directed all uniformed Gardai must conduct at least 30 mins of roads policing per working day now? I wonder how much we will actually see.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122008146#Comment_122008146

To save me looking up their employment history🙃 what kind of job did she give him?

Padre_Pio

My experience is people have no consideration. Illegal parking, double parking, pulling out in front of other cars, constantly changing lanes to "get ahead", it's just crazy. They had to put cones down at Dunkettle because cars were driving onto the hatched lines to merge later and gain a few car lengths in traffic.

I was recently stuck at a junction because 5 cars were parked illegally on the road, reducing it to a single lane. People turning off the road couldn't turn because their only path was blocked by people turning onto the road. It's a complete mess.

That's 5 people who said "ah f8ck it" and dropped their cars to save them an extra 20 seconds walk into Aldi.

There's uproar where I live now because a lady recently moved in who uses a wheelchair. She can't go to mass because other people going to mass just drop their cars on the footpath instead of using the car park across the road.

Kaisr Sose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122008154#Comment_122008154

That will be a joke as lots say they are not family with the RTA.

You just have to observe the number of vehicles with blown head lamp bulbs, motor bikes with tax disc obscuring reg place or both with non-complaint reg plates to show little policing there is on the roads. In the UK, you would be pulled over in no time for all those.

But hey, AGS now have the mobility app which they say is a policing game changer....they just do t have enough people out there to change the game.

fritzelly

Will watch this tomorrow but there is zero road enforcement, there is a big crossroads where I live right next to a Garda station and people are breaking the lights constantly, going through pedestrian crossings that have the green light. If you get away with the small things you are more inclined to try and get away with the bigger things.

Heard on the radio yesterday (RSA woman) I think its like 100k for a camera on a pole - WTF! Even so at that price it could easily make the money back snapping everyone going thru a red light.

Road policing in Ireland is very much the lightly approach

2024 cars with fancy dashboards have nothing to do with road carnage.

No law and order is the basic problem on the roads and society in general. This country needs a serious reboot. Criminality needs to be dealt with. Not enough PoPo and useless judges who let every scrote off with PS5 and a hug.

SuperBowserWorld

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122008179#Comment_122008179

The PS5 is to keep them at home and off the streets.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122008179#Comment_122008179

yeah I’m sure it’s not the cars with iPads in the centre console that’s the problem it’s definitely all the dangerous criminals getting away with murder that’s causing all these road deaths, how stupid of me.