Road deaths ‘a wake-up call’ for Mayo motorists

The shocking rise in Mayo road deaths is a wake up call for all road users.

That is the message of the new Mayo Road Safety Officer after the provisional road collision figures for 2023 released by An Garda Siochána and the Road Safety Authority show that 12 people died on the county’s roads in the last 12 months.

The figure is a staggering 140 percent rise on both 2022 and 2021 figures, when five road deaths were recorded in each of those years. The last time there was a higher number of road deaths was in 2015, when 13 deaths were recorded.

Nationally, a total of 184 people died in 173 fatal collisions in 2023, compared to 155 deaths in 149 collisions in 2022 – a 19 percent rise compared to last year. Tipperary was the county with the most road deaths with 16, followed by Co Dublin and Co Cork, which each had 15 and Galway with 13 and Mayo with 12.

Of the 184 road deaths in 2023, 69 were drivers, 44 were pedestrians, 34 were passengers, 26 were motorcyclists, eight were cyclists and three were e-scooter users.

The new acting Road Safety Officer with Mayo County Council, Gary Smyth, told The Mayo News that the increase in road deaths is a stark reminder that the road-safety message must taken seriously.

“It is a wake up call that we need to take road safety more seriously, along with enforcement,” he said.

The start of 2023 saw a significant increase in the carnage on Mayo roads, when seven deaths were recorded before the end of March. The position of Road Safety Officer in Mayo was vacant over over a year when Mr Smyth took up the role in June, when the county had the highest road death rate in the country.

Young drivers

While the death rate slowed in the last six months of 2023, Mr Smyth said that it was important to keep this trend continuing into the new year and to keep communicating road safety, particularly to young drivers.

“Our main focus will be the 17-year-old to 26-year-old drivers, who are the ones we are trying to get the message across to. The Road Safety Authority have brought out some hard-hitting videos in relation to trying to get the message across regarding driving while distracted. You are 4 percent more likely to have an accident if on your mobile phone while driving, but the message doesn’t seem to be getting across.

“The older people are taking these ads on board, but young people don’t seem to be getting the message. They seem to think they are invincible when they are in their cars and speeding. They have an attitude of it will not happen to them,” he said, adding that he received reports of up to 40 boy racers around Castlebar on Christmas night.

In order to try to get the road-safety message across to young drivers, the much acclaimed AXA Roadsafe Roadshow, which is aimed at teenagers, returns to the TF Royal Hotel next April.

“This will be targeted mainly at TY students so they can listen first hand to first responders who have attended scenes of fatal accidents and they will recall what happened,” said Mr Smyth. “Anyone who has gone to the AXA roadshow has seen what is involved and come out of it with a different perspective on how they drive. It will be hard hitting to the target audience,” he said.

Speed and drink driving are still the main contributors to road deaths in Ireland with approximately 130 drivers arrested every week for drink driving around the country. Before Christmas, Mayo County Council launched their ‘The Choice is Yours’ drink-driving video, which targets young people and the consequences of driving after having a drink.

Sharing the road

Mr Smyth said that despite the warnings some people still travel along busy roads without any hi-vis clothing.

“There are a few main areas we will be looking at and one thing which people are still doing is walking on roads with no hi-vis on them. Bicycles need to have lights and cyclists need to be wearing hi-vis. While cyclists may give out about motorists and motorists give out about cyclists we all need to share the road appropriately. It is a matter for us all being conscious of our responsibilities on the road.”

Mr Smyth added that his office will continue to provide road-safety tips throughout 2024 and hopes that it will be a safer year for all road users.

“We feel the campaigns do get through to some people. It is a matter of keeping the message out there. We will continue the campaigns at different times of the year to get people to slow down and not to drink and drive. There will be different campaigns for different times of the year. It is a matter of education and trying to get the word out there to people,” he said.

Commenting on the national figures, Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Jack Chambers said the Government is looking to progress the Road Traffic Bill through the Dáil in early 2024 and work is ‘well underway on a number of other initiatives in partnership with other Government departments and agencies’.

Liz O’Donnell, Chairperson, RSA said any one life lost is one too many and stressed that all agencies must do more to reduce road deaths.