Mayo bucks national trend with road deaths decrease

ROAD SAFETY SUCCESS?Noel Gibbons (right) is pictured with Tom Gilligan, Director of Services with Mayo County Council, after the Council recently won an award for its road safety initiatives.

Anton McNulty

EDUCATION and enforcement are the key factors in ensuring that deaths on the county’s roads continue to drop in 2017, according to the county’s road safety officer.
Mayo bucked the national trend in terms of road deaths in 2016 with four people dying on the county’s roads in the last 12 months compared to 13 in 2015. Nationally, the number of road deaths rose by 15 percent with the total number of fatalities for 2016 standing at 187.
The last 12 months was a good year for road safety in Mayo with the lowest fatality figure for many years being recorded. It is a stark contrast to 2015 when 13 people lost their lives on the road.
Noel Gibbons, the Road Safety Officer with Mayo County Council, said the drop in road deaths was welcome but added that drivers needed to continue to be vigilant if the trend is to continue.
“It is an improvement on last year and Mayo is bucking the national trend where the number of road deaths has increased by 15 percent. Four deaths is four too many and that figure can change over night in one accident so we have to continue to work to ensure the roads are safe. Education and enforcement are the main factors in reducing road deaths and that is what we have to continue to do,” he told The Mayo News.
Mr Gibbons admitted he was very disappointed that the number of road deaths was continuing the rise nationally.
He said the work and co-operation of the Gardaí, the HSE and Mayo County Council in tackling road safety has been significant but was worried at the number of drink driving convictions over the Christmas.

Drink-driving detections
Since the start of the anti-drink driving campaign on December 1, there has been an increase of 34 percent in the number of arrests on suspicion of drink driving compared to 2015. Mr Gibbons said younger drivers were now being detected more than in previous years and urged people to not drink and drive.
“The number of detections are well up on last year and it indicates that people are going back to the ways it was before drink driving campaigns. Younger driving are now being detected more than ever and that is a huge change compared to five years ago. Everyone has to play their part to ensure road deaths continue to drop. It is not just the job of the gardaí or the RSA, people have to take responsibility for their actions,” he said.
In light of the rise in drink driving detections, Moyagh Murdock, CEO of the Road Safety Authority appealed for those driving not to drink and drive.
“Any amount of alcohol impairs your driving, this is not an opinion, it’s a scientific fact. So if you are socialising for the rest of the holiday period, remove temptation altogether and leave the car and keys at home and plan how you are going to get home. Be aware too that you may not be safe to drive the morning after a night out, as you may still have alcohol in your system. Our appeal is to passengers too, don’t take a lift from anyone who has been drinking and don’t put your life in their hands,” she said.