Why Does Donegal Have So Many Fatal Road Accidents?

Probably wobbly. What I observe matches the RSA's report that revealed that the counties where speed featured most as a contributory factor in collisions were Donegal (8.4%), Cork (8%), Wexford (8%), Cavan (7%) and Galway (7%) and that 91% of culpable drivers in speed-related collisions were male.

I think someone posted earlier about how we never hear what the cause of road deaths are.

These are all passed off as "terrible accidents" when in fact the vast majority are probably anything but.

Most probably involved alcohol, drugs, excessive speed, dangerous driving, mobile phone use, suicide or bald tyres. But we never hear of any cause, and as a result we are putting our heads in the sand and not addressing the issue.

Indeed, good point. However, Donegal drivers, worse in the country. That's why people aren't keen on DL reg plates on a car.

That comes from an analysis of accidents from 2008 to 2012. Were you observing driving behaviour in Donegal during those years?

Why would they be worse now?

Old habits die hard and I'm seeing no difference when I visit Donegal. General bad driving, fly tipping, speeding, carelessness, etc... Have you seen a vast improvements?

If those limits are ridiculous in Donegal, then they would be equally ridiculous in other counties. Which they are. I drove out from a narrow road which had a 80 limit on to a much wider road which had a 50 in Co Louth. There could be changes on the way for the whole country, with proposals to bring 80 down to 60 generally.

Here's an article about the state of roads:

Donegal and Mayo have the highest percentages requiring total reconstruction and high on roads needing structural repair, so could be something going on there.

Hmm - kind of what I said earlier - I dont want my tax payers money invested in 'total reconstruction' of every back road in Donegal which get at best a few dozen cars each hour. On a per traffic or per volume basis - I'd have a fairly strong view that roads in Dublin are much more in need of investment.

It is an explanation for higher road deaths on a thread about Donegal road deaths.

How much is spent on actually repairing them is a different matter.

On our road, a rise had sunk at the top causing a major dip on top of a rise. Two more areas sunk directly after it. If you hit the rise at any speed faster that 30mph, you will get flung around the road and because of the way it is, you would barely notice it until you hit it. It has been like that for ages. Only recently, the council put a sign on either side of it saying "slow, danger ahead". Those signs will probably sit there for another couple of years.

Likewise we had another part of a road sink. Again, difficult to see because there is no defined edge (like a pothole would) and people generally didn't realise how deep it was until they were in it. It was just before a bend and people had started going around it to save their bumpers/shocks, or else you'd have to a near stop and go through it in 1st gear. The council were doing works that corner and put the traffic lights in a way that made everyone go into it. Then I guess their own lorries went into it, so they fixed it.

Both of those sunken parts of the road appeared within a day or two. Neither were/are very obvious from inside the car. Thankfully neither have caused any major accidents except damage to some cars, but they very well could have.

Other intelligent decisions that have been made include taking the grass verge away on a very steep hill to "widen" it, putting in sharp and deep drains instead, then painting lines (in the middle of nowhere) that make the road more narrow than it was before. We've also had a section of road widened and they've left a tree in the wider part of the road.

Did you shoot a man in Reno just to watch him die?

You were an outsider driving in the county? Some or all of the bad drivers you saw could have been outsiders as well. NI drivers have a bad reputation when they are in the Republic. It sounds as if the overaker wasn't doing 120 when you could work out his age and notice the beard.

I’m my experience the road surfaces aren’t that bad. It’s the lack of traffic cops anywhere that allows the speeding, aggressive and reckless driving to go unpunished.