EU attacks our road safety as deaths soar
Monday February 20 2006
and Treacy Hogan
IRELAND is at the bottom of the Euro-league for improving road safety, a new EU study will reveal this week.
The study, obtained by the Irish Independent, is damning of our 'weak progress' in curbing death rates on the roads over the past five years.
Its timing could hardly be more relevant after one of the most tragic weekends on our roads in recent times.
Five people died in an horrific crash in Donegal on Saturday.
A Latvian mother and daughter were among those killed.
They were from the same town as one of those killed in the other car.
It happened at 4.20am, just 3.5km outside Buncrana, Co Donegal on a notorious bend known locally as 'Beach Halt'.
Such is the concern over the level of foreign worker fatalities that a nationwide road safety drive in a fortnight will target them.
Road safety chiefs fear as many as one-in-five road deaths this year will be from the Eastern European community.
They already account for an extra 20pc of deaths this year - and that partly explains the huge surge in fatalities.
The National Safety Council (NSC) fears that fatalities among Latvians, Lithuanians, Polish and other non-nationals will begin to push the death toll this year well above the 400 mark.
Meanwhile, the EU action plan says only new member states like Lithuania and Latvia are doing worse than we are.
The study was drawn up by the European Commission‘s Transport Directorate.
Last year, 400 people died in Irish road accidents, approximately 100 deaths per million people - just below the average figure, across all member states, of 95.
Overall, the Irish fatality rate has fallen by just 3.1pc since 2001, the report says.
"The main road safety problems are speeding and drink-driving. Seatbelt wearing has improved significantly in recent years, with an 84pc wearing rate in the front. Rear seatbelt wearing rates are 46pc."
It warns that Ireland had set a target to reduce road deaths by 25pc in 2006 on the level six years earlier.
But, according to last year's results, only a 13pc cut has been achieved so far.
And with this year's death toll ahead of the corresponding period for last year, there is little room for optimism.
One crucial change, hidden behind the statistics, is the dramatic increase in both the number of vehicles and licensed drivers on Irish roads.
In just seven years, there were 41pc more vehicles on Irish roads. The Commission divides countries into different categories, leaving Ireland in the second-worst group.
Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Spain, Hungary, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal and Sweden have better than average reductions.
Belgium, Greece, Latvia, Slovakia, Finland, Britain have made some progress, with improvements slightly below the average.
Ireland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia are making weak progress, or even going backwards slightly.
Road safety standards in Cyprus, Lithuania and Malta have all deteriorated over the past five years.
In Latvia, the country‘s traffic police chief told the Irish Independent recently that the country had a very poor record for road safety, particularly for drink-driving offences.
But he could point to draconian new legislation, introduced last October, which has already led to a significant fall in traffic offences, with arrests last month down 90pc on a year earlier.
However, Latvia‘s progress to begin reducing its accident rate has been better than in Ireland, where the figures remain almost unchanged.
