nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

Why Does Donegal Have So Many Fatal Road Accidents?

Straight Talker

This is going back well over twenty years i'd say, but to me anyway Donegal seems to have more fatal road traffic accidents than any other county. I guess the roads are pretty bad and dangerous up there. Obviously these things happen in other counties as well, but to me anyway it seems to happen more often in Donegal for some reason.

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Comments

EmmetSpiceland

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.

galwayguy85

What I also find somewhat incredible here is that the young fella was returning home from a late shift AND would've been getting up the following morning to study for his Leaving Cert? Late shifts at the weekend etc makes total sense, but not in the middle of a school week.

Reading between the lines, we can assume he was the driver and was at fault. There are no gushing praises online for him (unlike his passenger). All very tragic.

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121339349#Comment_121339349

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.

https://www.independent.ie/regionals/herald/terrible-tragedy-speeds-of-120kph-led-to-deaths-of-four-friends-in-donegal-crash/39828052.html#:~:text=Stephen%20Maguire,20%3A42

"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."

hoodie6029

Lots of one off houses so the only way to get around is to drive. Young people have to drive if they want to stay around.

The more you drive, the more the risk of an accident increases.

Mayo and Donegal, similar demographics have similar road deaths over the last 10 years.

This will be controversial but the cost of insurance is too low for young people. Other costs are higher than they were 20 years ago when I was young and trying to get on the road. €2,000 minimum for insurance back then. It’s much lower now which is lower again in real terms due to inflation. Parents have now money than ours had too (smaller family size, bigger incomes) so can help out with these costs.

Iodine1

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.

Montage of Feck

So we let the insurance companies rip off people to improve road safety. I don't see the connection.

Kav_Piero

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.

[Deleted User]

Bad roads and few Garda.

It's very easy to misjudge a corner when every road is windy.

Arse end of nowhere that gets no love.

magicbastarder

Spent a couple of nights in carndonagh a year or two ago. Could barely sleep one of the nights with the sound of revving engines, there was essentially an informal car rally in the town, shedloads of boy racers shithousing their cars through the town. I remember as a kid when staying with relatives there in the 80s, being woken at night by lads doing doughnuts or whatever in the town too.

magicbastarder

https://www.rte.ie/radio/doconone/806861-we-decide-who-lives-or-dies

...

The J Stands for Jay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121338637#Comment_121338637

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

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121339707#Comment_121339707

They should have made the programme about the county at the top, not near the top.

The J Stands for Jay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121339191#Comment_121339191

In my opinion ...... It's nothing to do with bias

Yeah, good one.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121339718#Comment_121339718

There have been several cases of five or more fatalities in a single incident in the last 15 years or so in Donegal - at least three IIRC, and one of those had eight deaths. I don't think any other county has suffered that sort of toll?

Straight Talker

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121339718#Comment_121339718

Cork isn't too far behind alright. The road from Cork to Limerick is very bad in parts as well.

Straight Talker

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121339733#Comment_121339733

I just stated my opinion. You don't like it that's fair enough, but how about bringing more than inane one liners to the table eh?

The J Stands for Jay

I hardly think pointing out logical fallacies is inane.

Akrasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121339758#Comment_121339758

In my opinion, at least some of the road deaths in Donegal are caused by stray sheep wandering onto the roads.

I have zero evidence of this, so my opinion should not be taken seriously by anyone

The J Stands for Jay

IMG_20170614_124351489.jpg

Newspaper article from 2017

FishOnABike

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121339718#Comment_121339718

Comparing populations, Cork has roughly three and a half times the population of Donegal so proportionatly Cork's number of road traffic deaths is lower.

mykrodot

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!

magicbastarder

Some stats from last year. Doesn't seem to report any longer term averages; given the small populations of some counties, they'd be very prone to statistical blips.

https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/irelands-deadliest-roads-counties-most-dangerous-for-road-users-revealed/42159621.html

PARlance

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.

BrianD3

Nothing wrong with Donegal roads or drivers. KEEP 'ER LIT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVYjNII-upg

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121340230#Comment_121340230

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.

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121338930#Comment_121338930

years of being near Derry area where an amount of lawlessness was part of life.

Eh? The derry/donegal border area was one of the most heavily policed parts of the country per capita for decades, right up to the early 2000s.

Most of the opinions on this thread are the stuff you'd hear from John in the pub, the self proclaimed expert of every topic from immunology to modern warfare to economics and now a forensic crash investigator

John_Rambo

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.

Cosmo Kramer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121340287#Comment_121340287

I think the lawlessness in question was the reason for that like...

PARlance

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121340275#Comment_121340275

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

RavenBea17b

Driving in Ireland is stressful enough - roads are shocking in places. What is it about drivers wanting to drive as close as is possible without actually hitting you, trying to push you out of their way. Undertaking - general awareness of surroundings and upcoming issues is shockingly bad - interpreting scenarios . Entering a motorway or dual carriageway - no-one seems to signal that they are entering, the rule is the entering car does NOT got priority over the drivers already on the road. Here is Ireland, it seems that many people have the opposite attitude. Its like move out of my way , even though it may not be possible for cars already on the road to do so.

Other contribution to behaviours of some, not all of course, is not driving appropriately to the road conditions - physical weather , physical road, both.

Friends and family in France have driven in Ireland and were scared at times.

A cousin got done for speeding in France - it was raining and he hadn't dropped his speed. Knowing what he is like, I am surprised that's all he got (bit of a I know better attitude etc)

I had to drive during the early part of storm Agnes, even then people were driving way to fast for the conditions. I think its a general attitude from many people, that they don't care, that they don't think.