Ireland “going backwards” in terms of road safety says Smith

With fatal road traffic accidents involving pedestrians reaching a 15-year high, Labour TD Duncan Smith says that Ireland is “going backwards” in the issue of road safety.

Minister of State Jack Chambers addressed the Dáil yesterday where he cited a “negative trend” with regard to road traffic accidents, and renewed his Department’s promise to halve the number of road traffic accident fatalities and injuries by 2030.

Chambers said that speed was a major factor in fatal crashes, and said that “recent trends serve as a reminder to us all that we cannot be complacent about road safety.”

“Reducing the number of road deaths and serious injuries will only be achieved if we all highlight the importance of road safety and promote conversations on the topic in our homes, with our families and friends and in our places of work.”

Labour TD Duncan Smith, while praising Minister Chambers’ commitment to tackling accidents on Irish roads, said that Ireland is “going backwards” with regards to the issue.

“We know that, regrettably, lamentably and tragically we are going backwards in terms of road safety and road deaths. We saw 25 road deaths in August alone. We nearly had one death every day during what should be one of the safer months. As of Tuesday last, 24 October, we have seen an increase of 36 in the number of road deaths as compared with the corresponding date in 2022. We have also seen 31 more collisions in this timeframe according to An Garda Síochána,” the Labour transport spokesperson noted.

“In May, I called on the Road Safety Authority, RSA, to be mandated to publish data on road traffic collisions in order to better inform Ireland’s transport strategy and, ultimately, protect drivers and pedestrians and save lives. The worrying statistics we have seen with regard to the continuing increase in the number of road deaths is further proof that, among other things, we need to see this data published on a regular basis.”

Smith called for the monthly publication of road traffic collisions, and accused Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan of a “cop-out” regarding the numbers.

“The Road Safety Authority published this data up to 2016 before stopping, seemingly for no reason at all. –  Minister Ryan claims the reason this data is no longer produced is due to the GDPR, but is a cop out.”

“It is absolutely in the public interest to have this information available,” he said.

“Having data on collisions could be transformative for transport policy, and it would inform all drivers of particular blackspots for accidents on our roads.”

“As Government looks to reduce the speed limits on roads, data on collisions would be invaluable to ensure an evidence-based approach on this move.”

The Dublin Fingal TD called for a move away from anecdotes and have an evidence-based approach to transport policy in Ireland.

Smith acknowledged Chambers is “taking the lead” on the issue, and noted that he is adopting a multifaceted approach involving investment through local authorities, education, awareness programmes, encouraging better driver practices and Garda enforcement.

“I ask the Minister of State to continue with that energy and to work with the relevant line Ministers across those agencies and Departments to move this forward. We cannot go back. We were making progress in this area and the trends were going in the right direction but, as we know, every death and serious injury is a tragedy.”

“All of us in this country have been touched by road deaths, either directly or indirectly. We need to get those trends going back in the right direction. We will work with the Minister of State to achieve that but we need more energy and more investment,” he said.