Why Does Donegal Have So Many Fatal Road Accidents?

For me, a lot of road traffic accidents, and deaths, on country roads, not just Donegal, is the attitude of some country people that they “know the roads”.

This means they can travels over 80kmph on skinny, windy, roads and nothing will happen. Unfortunately, “knowing the roads” doesn’t seem to cover unexpected pedestrians, slippery surfaces due to leaves, or oil, and whatever other factors that aren’t the direction of the road.

They are behind a paywall for me. But I got the deatails of the accident where four were killed from the Independent. Just four more were killed in Donegal in 2019. It is taking an untypical example to try to prove a point which does not hold up to scrutiny. The two factors there were drink and speed, very excessive speed.

Before the general attitude to drink driving in the country turned against the idea, there was horrible carnage on our roads. And this was mostly in the days of no phones in cars.

Road deaths in Ireland:

1962 339. 1972 640.

1982 533. 1992 415.

2002 376. 2012 163. 2022 156.

"The court was told that all four men were intoxicated.

Forensic Collision Investigator, Garda Gerard McCauley gave a report on what caused the crash. He told how measurements indicated that the car was traveling at a speed of 120kph on a road governed by an 80kph speed limit."

Night time, bad weather, inexperienced drivers, boy racing, phones, lowered cars, cut springs, tiredness, bad roads, speed etc all contribute to various accidents and in most cases it will be a combination of a few factors. Its not simple.

Spent a couple of days driving around Donegal a few years ago and just found the whole experience a bit uncomfortable to be honest.

Have travelled on plenty of country roads over the years but never witnessed such reckless driving before, everyone always seems to be in hurry - speeding while approaching sharp bends, tailgating, outright dangerous overtaking etc.

Cork has a much worse record, and a love for drink driving and donuts at the crossroads, but somehow Donegal seems to stick in people's minds

Yeah, good one.

I hardly think pointing out logical fallacies is inane.

Newspaper article from 2017

To answer the original question in one word: Boyracers

My sister has lived in rural Donegal for 30 years, I regularly visit, the back roads are used as racetracks. Every young lad is into racing cars, its a culture. She was driving her kids to school many years ago and was crashed into by the neighbours boy racer son, on a bad bend, at 8.30am, going 90 miles an hour. They were lucky to walk away. Boyracers and culture.

No need for speculation. If you live in Donegal you know!

My grandmother was from Donegal and we spend a good bit of time up there. Whatever about statistics, it's certainly a place where I am fearful on the roads. There's a real sense of lawlessness up there, that's what happens when an area is/feels forgotten and neglected, I suppose. Plenty other reasons as well.

I'm from Mayo, and there's plenty of boy racers etc here, I would consider Mayo a bit nuts as well, especially in the more remote areas, but Donegal just seems a different level altogether.

The first time we brought the kids up (when they were old enough to be able to take things in, they had been up as toddlers etc), we got to Gweedore and we were met by two quad bikes coming towards us racing on the main road, there were being driven hard by two kids who couldn't have been much older than 12.

Our kids quickly came to terms with "that's just Donegal" and it's a phrase commonly used.

Leitrim had no deaths in 2021, and 1 in 2022. Probably billions of miles travelled on those roads during that time. It is a safe place.

I drive around the country and Donegal drivers are by far the worst drivers I've seen. Cork my have a worse record but it's a bigger county with more people.

The under 30 age group is bad, but the immaturity amongst older (30+) drivers is staggering. The desperate car control, bad judgement, inability to drive, lack of skills, dangerous driving, stupid overtakes, phone usage, throwing rubbish out of windows, drink driving & drug driving signifies a general "F* you" to other road users within their community. It's unmatched in the country and it's echoed by the innocent people they wipe out with their antics be they other road users or passengers.

Leitrim drivers are very slow and cautious, I put it down to the 8 pints myself.