Stopping dead: road deaths are tragic – and meaningless

Four young women died in a tragic accident last night on a road between counties Galway and Mayo, while one remains in intensive care. As horrific as this incident is, it was an event with no meaning – but that won’t stop Ireland’s politicians and media wringing it for all it’s worth.

Whereas in other countries car crashes are local news, national media in Ireland, such as radio station Newstalk, report every accident that occurs. In fact, such is the morbid obsession with road deaths that Southern media which has long ignored all non-Troubles news from the North regularly reports on car crashes in the Six Counties. Meanwhile, local authorities have erected signs on major roads informing drivers how many people have been killed on the roads in recent years. Aside from distracting drivers from driving, these signs generally result in confusion: in urban and suburban areas, such as Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, the numbers are so low that they unable to function even as a scare tactic.

The fact is that road deaths are in decline: in 1998, 448 people died on the roads in the South. Since then there has been a year-on-year decline: the figure for 2006, for example, was 285. (See fig. 1) This is a small number when set against the population of 4,459,547. (1) Even with an averaged figure of 396 deaths per year, this still results in just 1.3 per cent of annual deaths occurred on the roads. (2)

forth was unable to obtain Central Statistics Office-verified road death statistics for 2007 (and it should be noted that the above figures include all deaths on Southern roads, not only those as a result of collisions) but a 2007 report from the Road Safety Authority (RSA) notes that the fatality rate per million population was 78 in 2007, a decrease of 9 per cent from the 2006 rate of 86. (3)

Why then are road deaths such a significant issue for the Irish media and politicians?

Fianna Fáil TD Mattie McGrath was recently pilloried for taking a relaxed attitude to drinking alcohol and driving. McGrath’s comments were certainly ill-advised but they were not actually an inaccurate reflection of the issue of drink driving in rural Ireland, a problem that will not ever go away due to an almost total absence of alternative modes of transportation.

Unfortunately, road accidents are inevitable. Minister for community, rural and Gaeltacht affairs Éamon Ó Cuív today said that Ireland’s rural road network requires further upgrading. This is certainly true –  despite the development of a rudimentary motorway network, Ireland’s roads are of variable quality and any upgrades are to be welcomed. However, issues with road quality are not the main factor in road deaths. According to the RSA: “Road factors contributed to three per cent of fatal collisions resulting in five deaths and nineteen serious injuries in 2007.” (4)

This should not be allowed to be transformed into a generalised anti-car crusade, however. What is likely to be missed is that during the last decade Ireland has not only become a safer place to drive, it has seen a huge increase in the absolute number of drivers. The population has increased by 18 per cent since 1997, the amount registered motor vehicles has risen by a full 71 per cent and number of driver licence holders has increased by 37 per cent. During this period, however, the absolute number of fatalities has decreased by 28.4 per cent. (5) Ireland’s roads are safer than ever and are getting safer with each passing year.

The morbid focus on road deaths amounts to not only a politicisation of a technical issue, it also contributes to growing culture of risk aversion that is out of step with reality. Attempting to turn road deaths into moral campaigns, whether over speeding, drink-driving or anything else, will do nothing to lower the number of deaths on Ireland’s roads.

We don’t need road safety crusades or media scares about the dangers of driving. Instead we should slow down, think about why road deaths, tragic and appalling as every one is, are allowed to be used as a political football while real political issues are ignored and swept under the carpet.

(1) Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators, 2008
(2) Source:  Wolfram Alpha
(3) Road Collision Facts 2007 (PDF), RSA
(4) Ibid
(5) Ibid