Seven in 10 fatal crashes occur on rural roads with speed limit of 80km as research indicates motorways are five times safer
by 9ONK
Seven in 10 fatal crashes occur on rural roads with speed limit of 80km as research indicates motorways are five times safer
by 9ONK
22 comments
While I’m sure driving has much to do with it, a national programme of road straightening and levelling would go a long way. Most rural roads have stretches that are just completely blind and unsafe at any speeds.
EDIT:
The document being referenced is, I believe, this one:
https://www.rsa.ie/docs/default-source/road-safety/r2—statistics/provisional-reviews/provisional-review-of-fatalities-1-january-to-31-december-2023.pdf?Status=Master&sfvrsn=d8fccb13_3
The summary of which is:
* Fatalities are highest since 2014 when there were 192 fatalities.
* Average of 16 fatalities a month
* Increasing number of fatalities among passenger, pedestrians and motorcyclists
* Over a quarter of fatalities were aged 16-25 years
* Almost half (48%) of fatalities occurred between 8pm and 8am*
* Almost half (48%) of fatalities occurred between Friday and Sunday*
* Approximately 7 in 10 on rural roads, with a speed limit of 80km/h or greater
It’s the last point that seems to be driving headlines. I would also assume that, although the term ‘rural roads’ is used and repeated in the Press, they are only referencing National or Regional roads, not Local roads – which have a general speed cap of 60km. There’s a bit of a grey area there though, as such roads would include, for example, the N1, N4, N7, and N20 – none of which I would personally describe as ‘rural roads’. I don’t think the stat is particularly valuable unless some form of traffic density metric is taken into account; the R324 from Balla to Kiltimagh sees a lot less traffic than the N1, but this stat would count both as a ‘rural road’.
Anyone can tell you this. Of course motorways are safer than rural roads.
The RSA should be deemed unfit for purpose at this rate. There needs to be a complete overhaul of the whole organisation.
How many fat cats at the top are getting paid the big money ? And what is is actually accomplishing.
We’re going backwards and they are losing credibility very quickly.
Did someone actually get paid to do this survey? Everyone knows this ffs.
Thank God we’re putting the speed vans on motorways where they can save peoples lives
how much of the road network is made up of rural roads i wouldn’t be suppersed if it was 70%
surely for a comparison you’d have to dived by what percentage of the total road network it makes up ?
While this isn’t surprising in the slightest, sometimes I think it’s almost because the rural roads are almost too good nowadays. What I mean is, years ago these roads had poor surfaces, had few cambers for drainage, and few lines. Nowadays some of these roads are better maintained than the old national routes of 30 years ago, and it leads people to drive recklessly at speed on them because of the perception that they are safer. But they still have blind bends and still trees along the route, which is the worst thing you could impact.
More roads need more traffic calming measures to slow the traffic down.
Rural roads need to be reviewed at a local level and assigned appropriate speed limits; 50, 60, 80.
The current approach of a blanket 80kmh limit along with relying on a drivers common sense to adjust speed to conditions just doesn’t work.
Tune in for tomorrows report on “water being wet”
Thank god we’re keeping learner drivers off the motorways then, I guess.
Why are people getting upset at a survey that confirms this fact, even if you already knew it this is official confirmation.
We need more motorways and bypasses.
[deleted]
Build more motorways
Rural roads are full of potholes, narrow and have a lot of elevation and bends. There is no foot path nor a save place to escape for anyone walking along. There is also no safe crossings. The visibility due to hedges and plants is minimal as well. If you want to have saver roads we need to work on better infrastructure. Some roads do definitely need speed limit adjusting but this is not the main issue.
We need to start doing at least part of the driving test on r and l roads. It’s fucking nuts that we don’t leave town or go above 60kph.
I wonder how many of these people currently speeding on these roads will suddenly drop down to 60kph? The first 45km of my journey to work everyday is on these kinds of roads, it takes long enough to get to work without being stuck at 60kph while being overtaken on blind corners and hidden dips etc. sort out the state of the roads, as someone else suggested straightening and levelling the roads, that will have a much bigger impact.
Recently the RSA were very vocal about their thoughts on later licencing being brought in. Give Us The Night called it, it was a distraction tactic to point the finger at something that isn’t the real issue, because they have no idea how to fix the things that are really causing issues.
They only do speed checks on the good roads. It’s fucking stupid
People drink drive on rural roads to dodge checkpoints.
How are the RSA able to tell us this, weren’t they pretending that GDPR meant they couldn tell us anything about anything at one stage?
You can do what you like on rural roads. Get infront of a judge and say you need the car to get to work and you’ll be fine.
Recent case of a guy caught doing 160 on an r road and then not stopping for a few km despite being chased. The result? Two month suspended sentence and two points for careless driving. Yes, careless, not dangerous.
Why not dangerous? “ah sure he’s a young lad that panicked when the guards chased him. He’s working in construction and would lose his job if he didn’t have a car”
There’s no enforcement. I don’t blame the gardai for not really trying to pursue driving offences anymore because the only way to get someone off the road is if they don’t pay tax or insurance. Drive in a manner that might kill someone, you’re grand. Don’t pay for your paper discs, you’re off the road.
Just got to work and I’m taking a breather at my desk. Came around a blind bend and there was a Yaris flying on the wrong side of the road, had to throw two wheels into the ditch to avoid him. I was picking bits of bush off the wing mirror and bumper when I got to work.
The road surfaces are just too good, people drive way too fast. Straightening these sections will only make people drive even faster.
We need to stop making so many rural roads, stop building so many houses that force people into rally of the backroads as part of their commute and start heavily funding public transport.