Why Does Donegal Have So Many Fatal Road Accidents?

In Donegal, it's not just the motorists...

I'll always remember this thread full of downplaying and whataboutery.

These are the first posts in this thread in 16 months which says it all

2024 was a very bad year in Donegal and it was 4th in the list. As niman says, people just waiting for a bit of Donegal bashing.

What the fcuk is wrong with young men from donegal? Boy racers acting like they're invincible, then it's their parents and brothers and sisters who have to suffer the consequences of their reckless driving.

Is it some sort of ego thing, or a weird want for notoriety. Not many weekends go by where you don't hear some lad from inishown or letterkenny has been killed.

If the roads were all newly surfaced in Donegal l suspect things could be even worse as the boy (and girl) racer culture endemic to Donegal would go even faster. Someone wrote on this thread that the common use age of illegal plates (fonts and colours) are indicative of the l’ll do what l want culture. I agree, it shows the mindset involved and it also shows the lack of enforcement from the local gardai.

From the Independent a while back…

“Donegal, the county with one of Ireland's highest rates of road deaths, lost one third of its dedicated Garda Roads Policing Unit personnel in the space of just three years. The revelation came in a study by road safety group PARC, which analysed roads policing personnel numbers between 2009 and 2024 across all Garda divisions. Overall personnel dropped from 1,046 in 2009 to 627 in December 2024. Between 2021 and December 2024, Garda RPU personnel dropped by 109 officers.”

That’s just nuts. So accidents and deaths increase. But let’s decrease the resources used to enforce road safety and to detect people breaking the law.

That’s ‘modern’ Ireland for ya my friends..

I understand you feeling defensive if Donegal is your home county and you're a safe driver - but I don't think it's meant as an excuse to have a go at Donegal people overall, just an apparent pattern which people are giving examples of. Maybe it depends on what parts, how busy the traffic is, etc. Yeah there is dangerous driving anywhere unfortunately, but Donegal with its very winding roads seems to be particularly dangerous for crazy driving. West Cork is like that too - just nutters. On the windiest of roads, the darkest and wettest of nights. It's terrifying.

the rallying culture is a positive thing,

How is this 'culture' a positive thing?

“Donegal, the county with one of Ireland's highest rates of road deaths

So it's not the highest? Anyone point me in the direction of the thread discussing the county with the highest?

The Donegal people generally speaking are perfectly safe drivers, even though their numbers are driven up by the late-night boy racer culture crashes, they still don't make the top which must make the non boy racer drivers very safe to pull the average down. That's despite the large distances traveled and poor roads.

What about the drivers killed in the counties with higher death rates than Donegal? Have they earned Darwin awards in your eyes?

You and the others can't have it both ways. If Donegal has a high road death due to late night boy racer culture, then the regular drivers must be much safer and competent than average to keep the county off the top of the list. Or drivers in counties that don't have a boy racer culture must be absolutely shite to be at the same or above the county that has the problem. It's them drivers than need to have a good look at themselves.

There is a definite devil may care attitude to driving in Donegal and Ulster/NI in general Donegal definitely the worst IMO. There is a wildness and lawlessness in mindset. It shows in the driving. That A5 going through Tyrone towards Donegal is. a death trap, especially when aggressive driving is added to a poorly designed road.
The perception by some Dubs is that travelling North is a risk not worth taking due to the wildness in driving. Having travelled to Donegal recently it is not hard to see why.

However, the drive to Armagh from Dublin is less stressful due to better roads. However, I would be lying if I didn’t say I was “switched on” for aggressive driving even so.

I was tuned in for it. Travelling north = more potential dangerous driving than the usual.

I look forward to your observations on Mayo drivers for example, a statistically more dangerous county than Donegal despite having better roads. Just what are they at?

In Donegal, they cancel St Patrick's parade because of another fatal road incident