As of December 19th at 5 pm we are up 18 deaths at the same time last year and up 20 collisions in the same time frame ( garda.ie ). Would you class the reduced speeds introduced back in spring as a failure or is it down to too much traffic on roads?.
by siciowa
43 comments
Yeah but the population….etc.
What’s the “Deaths per 100,000” rate so far?
Even that isn’t necessarily very helpful as it can’t take account of time at the wheel, distance driven etc
It’s terrible but look at all the sub redditts everyday talking about bad drivers and crashes in every county so it should not be of surprise to anyone . I do think it boils down to enforcement largely .
Just look at r/irelandsshitedrivers and you would wonder why it’s not higher.
IMO it’s down to lax policing by AGS, extremely high usage of mobile phones when driving (have never come across it anywhere as bad as Ireland) – I routinely see even truck drivers looking at mobile screens when driving, a post Lockdown phenomenon of drivers seemingly viewing red lights as optional, media campaigns that are not impactful enough (bring back the older style full-on ads – if they upset your sensibilities, good, they are supposed to). So, multifactorial, and a lot of people and organisations need to do a whole lot better.
Red lights are only a suggestion! At least five cars can make it through safely after they turn red…
And that’s just deaths. What are the numbers for injuries?
Well I drive a lot mainly in the South East of Ireland and I have to say drives are not very aware of what is around them and they tend to spend way too much time looking in their rear view mirror. I had a guy nearly drive off the road 5 times in under 5 minutes as he spend so much time looking in the mirror at me why I have no idea. Also going round a roundabout and they in the right lane someone is in the left lane going round with them and the person in the right lane turns off at the same place the person in the left lane but doesn’t go into the right lane in the road turns left straight into the left lane nearly hitting the car in the left lane. Oh I could tell you a lot of things that goes on on the roads. I’ve done 75000kms in a yr so done a lot of driving on the roads. Also talking aboujt speed the one thing that is not very good is when the speed goes down they instantly hit their brakes because it says the speed limite, just take your foot off the accelerator and it will slow down slower but safer than hitting your brakes. People are also getting irritated with the slower speeds so overtake to get to where they want quiker causing a possble accident.
Reduced speeds mean absolutely nothing if there’s no enforcement. People didn’t give a shite about speed limits anyway, to think they’d suddenly care now is silly.
And half the drivers are on their phones anyway. People will continue to die if there isn’t something seriously done to enforce road laws and punishments need to be far more severe. Anyone caught driving on their phone needs a lengthy ban, and make them redo the test.
While we are spouting wild theories, might as well throw in return to office means more commutes and stressed people driving under time pressure causing more accidents. So the real solution is for the government to mandate more wfh instead of stupid speed limits.
The population of Ireland has grown over 10% during 2010-2025, so all else being equal an increase in road deaths would be expected.
Just to point out that our population is almost 1 million more than it was in 2010. A per capita number may be more relevant.
That said, anecdotally the level of phone use while driving is ridiculous, without failure every time I’m at traffic lights I see another driver on their phone.
Speed changes are a total failure. My local road changed to sixty. Still cunts doing 100 on it.
Everyone’s on their phones. I live pretty rurally and even national roads in the area and narrow and twisted. I can’t drive more than 5k out of town before someone is coming round a bend in the middle of the road head buried in the phone. It drives me insane how close to disaster I am from the percentage of people not paying attention to the road at all
I’m driving twenty odd years now, and I don’t know if it’s me being a crotchety old fuck or what but I have seen so much truly awful driving behaviour in the last few years.
People completely clueless on roundabouts, people watching videos or texting on their phones, people incapable of merging onto a motorway, and so much aggressive driving, tailgating, weaving through traffic.
It’s mad. I’m not surprised there are more serious crashes happening – we really need some serious intervention
Not surprising, standard of driving has plummeted since Covid, no such thing as an indicator now and no one waits to leave you out of a space.
Seems like another problem letting people work from home could help 🤷
It’s been a tragic November/December on our roads. More traffic, dark evenings and mornings & the amount of people using their phones has reached epidemic proportions. I see it every day & people don’t realise that a momentary glance at the phone can be catastrophic, please, please drive with caution & don’t ruin your Christmas or anyone else’s.
I don’t drive so I walk a lot and I’ve definitely noticed an uptick in the number of drivers just simply ignoring pedestrian crossings
Until the government invest in smart cameras and enfore the rules of the road, we can expect the numbers to stay where they are.
It’s mental that people are so addicted to their phones that they need threat of getting caught to put them down while driving. I would have thought killing yourself or others would be enough but apparently not.
Give people proper alternatives to driving and there will be lest traffic and less collisions.
Metro, Dublin Luas extension, Cork Luas, Galway Luas, Wexford to Waterford train, Western Rail Corridor, train to Navan all held up in endless planning debacles.Â
It’s phone use. And coke. And road volume. All at once.
In general driving standards are in the toilet
I hope this is a timely prompt to introduce legislation to address the biggest change on Irish roads. Dazzlingly bright lights. There needs to be legislation to change the headlight standards. There needs to be enforcement of existing rules on full beam headlights. It is shocking to me that the stats aren’t far worse. We’ve gotten off lucky.
How much has the motoring population grown in the interim?
On crimecall the other night the stats were shared on speeding:
150,000 already caught this year,Â
About 420 drivers a day – its plain & simple AGS plan is no deterrent to those that want to speed.Â
Throw in the distractions that phones and big media screens in modern cars bring – that figure will continue to rise unless they take drastic action.Â
The amount of people I see driving that seem asleep at the wheel. Unsure of what they’re doing.
Phones are a massive problem. I was waiting at a pedestrian crossing with my kids today and there was a woman looking down texting away….
And absolutely nothing will be done about it.
Anything to do with the frenzied push to return to office across the board?
Adding maximum boom clap to the road infrastructure which hasn’t been substantially improved since the Celtic tiger?
Coupled with the fact that there’s never been such a high proportion of commuters commuting for hours on end to get to their unreachable chockablock workplace towns, cos there’s no houses within 100km? On the road slogging it at 6am in the pitch black day in day out dodging traffic by other bleary eyed zombies as you approach town
To do work that could be better done at home office?
Who knew 3hours commuting a day would have a downside! Not to mention having to face the kids and the basic necessities like shopping cooking cleaning laundry and everything else. Cos a 5th of your waking day is spent slogging it for an absentee site manager or CEO
One million extra people on the road huge amount of learners pre test since 2010
standard of driving has gone to shite. People are too impatient, reckless & too busy playing on phones. Took 2.5 hours today to get home (70 km) as every road i tried had an accident on it.
Lack of policing on roads is a problem too as people become more emboldened.
640 deaths in 1972 what the fuck happened there. With over two million less people
I drive for work. It’s a fucking epidemic people looking at their phones
Sounds like the GardaÃ’s ‘Operation BlindEye’ is working well. People act with impunity when it comes to phone use, speeding, break red lights etc.. why? Cos they know they’ll get away with it. We need an order of magnitude more speeding cameras, red light, bus lane cameras too. People need to feel there’s a high chance they’ll be caught. Then they won’t do it. Simple as that.
It’s hard to think tho, there will be 200 empty chairs around the Christmas tables this year.
That’s tough.
Rookie numbers.
Just a week ago almost a young fella i was working with died in a crash, 2 years extended family died in a crash. Something has to change
A few things . Yesterday I saw 3 young people l in a row on their phones barely glancing up at the road as they drove. It’s insane.
Secondly people seem to forget that aquaplaining is a thing and tearing down motorways way over the limit in terrible conditions.
In general, people seem way more amped up, cutting in and out of traffic and speeding like never before.
I’m sorry lads, i know i’ve been slacking lately. Lemme just neck this shoulder of vodka and i’ll get back to it
Impossible rural roads were lowered to 60kmph
The standard of driving is terrible.
We’re at the point of diminishing returns with speeds and zones, unless you want to cripple driving altogether.
We need Gardaà on the road driving around tackling the army of lazy, thick, careless, selfish incompetents on the roads.
I’ll give one example – taking a right hand bend and going over the line should be 6 points and a whopper of a fine. Just hammer the shite out of that one thing and it might get people thinking about their driving.
Also, public education. An advertisement on how to do basic things on the road is needed. Very basic elements of driving. Maybe hammer one topic every month. Start with indicating. Pulling out. Maintaining a steady speed (ie not tapping the brakes every time a leaf flutters in a tree). Maintaining your lane at all times. Maintaining an appropriate speed (if you’re only able to do 35 max in an 80 or any other zone you should be off the road).
And so on.
Phones, speeding, tailgating, super bright headlights… Driving has become a stressful thing in the past years
What about the ‘Single Vehicle Crash’ leading to death? Late at night playing GTA in the real world. A T-junction near me ‘boy racers’ doing doughnuts when it rains, every time, EVERY TIME.
Reducing speeds and not changing infrastructure to match causes accidents yes.
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