Ten die on Mayo roads in 2008

Ten people die on Mayo roads in 2008


Anton McNulty

DESPITE a significant decrease nationally in the number of deaths on the road in 2008, the number of Mayo fatalities remained the same as for 2007 – ten.
End-of-year figures released by the Road Safety Authority showed that 2008 was the safest year on the road since road figures were first recorded in 1959, with 276 people dying in road traffic accidents in the country, down from 338 in 2007.
While the number of deaths on Mayo roads did not increase, the number of serious injuries received as a result of traffic accidents increased slightly from 27 to 28, while the number of minor injuries suffered increased from 164 to 181. There was also little change in the number of drink-driving arrests, with Gardaí confirming that the figure remained around the 460 mark.
Inspector Barry Foley of the Mayo Traffic Corps told The Mayo News that while one death on the road is a death too many, the Gardaí were pleased that deaths had not increased. The number of gardaí dedicated to the Traffic Corps in Mayo has increased to 32 in the last year, and Insp Foley said the level of enforcement will be the same throughout the year.
“The number of deaths on the road in Mayo had been as high as 16 and 17 a year not too long ago, and that figure is dropping and the Garda strategy is for it to continue to drop next year. It is socially unacceptable to drink and drive but unfortunately the number of people detected for it is unacceptably high. The public are bombarded with road safety campaigns and the detection increase is a worrying factor. The Garda enforcement levels will continue to be high throughout the year and not just for Christmas. If people drink and drive they will be caught,” he said.
Mr Noel Gibbons, the road safety officer with Mayo County Council, told The Mayo News that the main campaign for 2009 will be to discourage drivers from using their mobile phones while driving. He said education was the key to improving driver behaviour, but added that they will be targeting drivers of all ages and not just youths.
The road safety plan received €133,000 in funding from Mayo County Council to promote road safety campaigns and, despite talk of cutbacks, Noel said they would not be skimping on safety.
“We will definitely be trying to continue to promote road safety to the same standards as before. We will continue to work with the different agencies and try and get our message across to the motorists. There are talks of cut-backs on a lot of things but there should definitely be no cuts or skimping on safety,” he said.