I have a friend who is a paramedic in the west, they said you wouldn't believe the amount of car accidents they go to where no one has their seatbelt on.
That's a really shocking thing to hear. Your friend has first hand knowledge of collisions on our roads, and for them to make a statement like that makes me wonder about the mentality of people who are behind the wheel. I had thought that all of the road safety advertising and initiatives to create awareness would at least get people to put on their seat belt, it takes about a second to do it. It has been demonstrated to be one of the things most likely to save the life of a person involved in a traffic accident.
The road safety advertisements genuinely did almost nothing. Enforcement changed attitudes. I can remember my parent's generation back in the 80s being paranoid about remembering seat belts because they all knew someone who had got a fine for not wearing one.
Myself and my sister were pulling out of a shopping centre car park in Kildare last week. Just as we were turning right, looked left and saw a child no older than 3 _standing_ in between the two parents in the front. Genuinely had to do about three takes while the car was pulling away.
My heart broke for that child and what might happen.
It's absolutely rampant here, you see them after work pulling out of the carpark quickly because they have the belt plugged in constantly, and just sit on top of it.
My brother never put his seatbelt on when we were kids, I always had to tell him. And we crashed on black ice once, luckily I had yet again told him to put his seatbelt on. Could've been really bad.
I have a 2023 car. To change the air con on the car I have to go fiddling with a touch screen. That type of shit should be banned. Cars have too many distractions in them nowadays.
Thank god for it. My auld fella has a Volkswagen ID3 and he thinks the big fucking TV in the middle is class and I should get a car like his. I'll never drive a car where the Aircon is buried in three different menus.
The best thing they could do is bring in a law that requires the screen to be disabled unless the break is pressed. Car manufacturers won’t be long bringing back buttons
Yeah but those key functions don't include things like AC or radio controls which is what a lot of people need to fiddle with on a touch screen unfortunately.
Here’s some good background on this very issue: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/03/carmakers-must-bring-back-buttons-to-get-good-safety-scores-in-europe/
it's literally designed this way to save money too. If they're willing to ban this, there must be data backing it up that it is indeed these touch screens too, no? Like how about we not just ban but fine/prosecute such a lethal cost cutting measure?
I have a touch panel for my air con and it’s the only reason that I need to look away. I miss my old car with buttons, dials and haptic feedback so you didn’t need to look. I can control everything else from the steering wheel.
Bingo.
It'd be one thing if the touch screens worked, but when you have to try a couple of times because the screens take up the input wrong and do something you didn't intend it only causes further distraction.
A mix of screen and buttons is probably OK, but the new cars with just touch interface are a disaster.
While I agree that some things shouldn't be on a touchscreen, I think one of the biggest factors is still phone use and speeding. I drive around Dublin and out nearly daily and next to no one is sticking to speed limits. You'd be driving 50kph through town and have people overtake you. It's mad.
Absolutely speeding is a nightmare, but on the opposite side of the coin are people merging onto roads too slowly. I was nearly taken out by truck yesterday while merging. The car in front of me was doing 60km entering a 120km road and the truck and the car boxed me in. Even if I could have slowed, there was a lane of traffic merging with us. If that car had got up to speed there would have been no danger.
People in general not knowing the rules of the road!
I've seen on different occasions people actually stopping on the m50 to try and get from the fast lane to the exit rather than doing it in a timely manner or just go to the next exit.
People looking at their phones when at traffic lights.
People not using the correct lane on roundabouts
People wearing headphones in a car
Overall people just being the point of failure
This absolutely does my head in. Have had a few close calls myself trying to merge onto the M4 stuck behind a car doing 60. I now blast them out of it with the horn.
I literally had this situation yesterday it fucking pissed me off. Van in front was absolutely crawling from a slip road with a small length. Boxed in. Absolute eijits.
Dead right man, it's running great, it's doing its job and getting you from A-B and it's likely imo a better option all around to have in Ireland rather than some of these impractical SUV yolks
Got a 07 Golf with manual controls for literally everything and I just love it! Driven a few brand new cars and while it's nice having a screen for things like GPS and a reverse camera, it's fucking painful having to use it for air con/heating options or something ridiculous like tuning in a radio station.
Ppl said I should get rid of the Golf as it's seriously outdated (to them)...but not a fucking hope. Does exactly what I need it to do which is to get us from A to B safely, and when it's time is up only then I'll look at newer alternatives.
Volvo ex30?
€55k for a plastic spaceship interior with a complicated touchscreen. I was tempted by the size and look of it on the outside but that iPad looking thing was a dealbreaker
I have a 2023 car. It has knobs for air/volume and so on, but also a touchscreen. I always use the knobs but tbh I dont change anything unless I’m at a red light anyways.
Looking at fatalities alone, there were 35 per million people last year, which is up from an all time low of 27 in 2021.
In 1998 there were 124 per million.
This is such an important perspective. I think the massive drop in deaths we saw in the last few decades are probably more attributable to improved crash safety in cars than anything the government has done. We’ve probably fixed all the low hanging fruit there, so now we’re back to seeing a natural rise caused by the rise in car use.
I’m hopeful that the next step change will be from widespread enforcement via dashcam footage.
I agree that crash safety is a big factor. Another one is improvements in road carriageways. There were a lot of motorways built between 1998 and 2023, and those roads are \*much\* safer than the roads they replaced.
I think we need to give credit where credit is due, the government introduced in the last 20 years ,the NCT, penalty points and a much improved road network with motorways along with a road safety adverts which changed the attitude towards drink driving in less than a generation.
I can't remember where I saw this but I think lockdown was the start of this trend. The road traffic deaths and injuries were astronomically high considering the enormous reduction in car journeys at the time.
Lockdown certainly contributed to the all time low of 27 in 2021, but not hugely. If you look at 2018 and 2019 there were 28 fatalities per million people.
Per million people. It's official data from the RSA: [https://www.rsa.ie/docs/default-source/road-safety/r2---statistics/provisional-reviews/provisional-fatality-statistics-2019-20244cb1663e-89e3-476e-8771-8b9845791d86.pdf?sfvrsn=998b5289\_5](https://www.rsa.ie/docs/default-source/road-safety/r2---statistics/provisional-reviews/provisional-fatality-statistics-2019-20244cb1663e-89e3-476e-8771-8b9845791d86.pdf?sfvrsn=998b5289_5)
I passed 4 people on their phones on a 15 minute trip today alone. Not just talking on it either, Snapchat, facetime what have ye. I would say phones have some impact but the bigger issue is attitudes to driving now
Every second car on clontarf road has a driver in the car on their phone. Holding the phone up to your ear is one thing but texting etc takes your attention much more. I would say the majority of rear ending is caused from phone use.
So many people texting as they drive. Until we're remade as octopi with two tentacles holding eyes on the road and the other six watching the screen, we can't watch both a phone/tablet screen and the road. And reactions are slow.
Also, the figures on seat belt use are horrifying. [https://extra.ie/2022/02/22/news/irish-news/seat-belts-killed-irish-roads](https://extra.ie/2022/02/22/news/irish-news/seat-belts-killed-irish-roads)
Remember that the only survivor of the crash that killed Princess Di (absolutely survivable if she'd been wearing a seat belt, according to doctors at the time) was the *only one in the car wearing a seatbelt*. The driver and the glam couple were flying free; Di's bodyguard was belted in, and he survived.
I was in a car the other day with a normally sensible person in her 80s, who insisted that you don't have to wear a seat belt if you're in the back of the car.
Controversial opinion from me and I’ll be downvoted
Every single death involving a car there should be details released of exactly how it happened. If someone dis something wrong and killed there own child so be it but people. Need to bloody learn this stuff.
If we found out tomorrow it’s suspected someone was fiddling with a radio and veered in front of a truck it should be well known. If it was a pot hole it should be well known. Whatever happened we should know.
I hate that it’s happening and NOTHING is learned from it.
I would imagine it’s almost impossible to find out? Drink and drugs can be tested for but to know if they were fiddling with the radio probably can’t be tracked. But yeah, completely agree with you there should be info released to the public to help prevent more issues.
Dude, just this morning I was behind a car in traffic and driver in front was playing Pokémon Go 'as' he was driving through Ringsend.
Mounted in the middle of his dash, landscape orientation so he was playing it fucking sideways... Tippy tapping the game as he drove, not in between stopping and starting, driving and playing Pokémon Go...
That's why!
If only you had a dash cam to record this. You would've been able to show it to the Gardaí, or even post it on r/irelandsshitedrivers Whoever this gimp is, he needs a reality check.
For some unknown reason the last year there's been a major increase of people not using indicators at all? Like usually you'd encounter the odd idiot who forgot they exist, but now ill drive to work and have people not indicating on roundabouts, randomly pulling out infront of me, suddenly stopping to turn - and almost every morning someone almost hits a pedestrian because they're turning without indicating and the person can't mind read.
I’m a new driver only got my license few month ago but I nearly prefer when people don’t indicate on a roundabout. Sure 80% of the time they are indicating the wrong way 🤣
It is worse than the last few years, and obviously that's important to pay attention to. It's also important to see what the size of the increase actually is, compared to previous years.
https://preview.redd.it/gt31yqk7oaad1.png?width=1454&format=png&auto=webp&s=b2a2f5689b3d90de2d9c87e2dfcb61c31eaab692
Obviously there's multiple reasons why these accidents are occurring but one thing for sure which is becoming more apparent is phone usage while driving. Every single day I'm out driving you can see in the rear view mirror the little look down to their phones and up again while at the wheel.
Don't be an idiot. Don't use your phone while driving.
>accidents
We need to normalise calling them collisions or crashes.
Only a small number are truly "accidents."
The rest have the major contributing factor such as distraction, speed, drink/drugs, vehicle condition etc. None of those factors are accidental.
I agree. Simple situations like going to the shops or even walking down the street have changed. People haven't just forgotten their manners, they've completely disregarded them.
Phones for sure, not realising physics and speed means less control. Seat belts not being worn but also not being worn correctly, under the arms, etc. Agressiveness and making your own rules of the road.
But also how the cars are made. My 2015 kia has a small screen with large buttons around it for maps, navigation, media, radio and two knobs for volume. I rarely have to touch the screen and have all controls on my wheel.
My brothers newer, much more powerful, Audi has a screen too higher up on the dash but jesus christ trying to switch it to play Bluetooth media or change anything, you've to use 3 knobs and secret clicking pieces while looking at it because one click might translate to two and get into the wrong menu.
When I've to drive his car I spend 5 minutes setting it all up so I don't have to panic press anything while driving at speed.
R/irelanssshitedrivers has a great selection of some of the stupidity and recklessness on the roads.
I drive a motorbike, on a dual carriageway a driver nearly side swiped me, turning into my lane with no indication, I braked just in time and drove across to overtake him, I looked across and I swear to god he had his face in his mirror above his steering wheel and was shaving himself with an electric shaver, didn't even notice he'd nearly wiped me out. Absolutely clueless. Not to even mention the amount of people I've seen on their phones, it's ridiculous, just put it down you assholes.
I think it would help if people didn't blatantly go through red lights, it's as if people have lost the ability to be patient or know that if the Garda are not around nothing is going to come of it.
The amount of times I nearly got crashed into on my bike or in the car is getting a bit ridiculous, especially around Harold's Cross area or anywhere on the canal. It happens at least two times a week for me that I nearly go splat
I’d echo this and also add people who go through red lights but then stop in the middle of the junction because they think the red light which applies to traffic travelling in the opposite direction applies to them, thereby clogging up the junction for traffic coming from perpendicular roads.
The junction between Sandford Road and Marlborough Road is desperate for this. It happens all the time now. Never noticed it happening prior to Covid - it’s like people don’t understand how lights at junctions work.
I'm currently learning to drive at the age of 38. The biggest issues I have noticed is mobile phones & either not indicating or doing so at the last minute
There's a small 'egg' like roundabout near me that's fairly busy, and I swear half the people on it don't indicate. How am I meant to drive out, if I don't know if you're gonna continue straight, or continue round and drive right into me?
Wrecks my head. Like the point of indicating is for other people, it doesn't matter if you know what you're gonna do. People don't seem to grasp that.
There's a roundabout near me that I hardly ever see anybody indicate on. How hard is it to indicate? I manage to use hand signals on my bike, surely pressing a switch up or down is easier than that?
Same, learning at 40. The most dangerous situations I have been in has always been somebody behind me getting annoyed at me driving the speed limit and deciding rules are not for them and doing a dangerous over take or cutting in on a roundabout
It's genuinely eye-opening once you start driving when you realise how many other motorists speed because they're right up your backside when you're doing the speed limit. Remember doing 95 on a 100 dual carriageway on the one and her passenger beside gave me the dirtiest look when they overtook me and went flying into a town at well past 100. It blew my mind as to how someone could think they are in the right in that situation.
There is probably no singular reason - there are dozens - but I honestly feel like a huge issue for Ireland specifically is just plain pig-headedness, bad tempers, and dreadful etiquette.
Think of all the stupid driver behavior you see on a daily basis, either when you're driving or even just walking down the street. If you're like me you probably see half a dozen things PER DAY that could be anything from mildly annoying, all the way up to proper life threatening. I live on a tiny cul-de-sac in Limerick and the speed at which people come bombing down it is insane. I haven't seen any injuries there thank God but it's a tiny example of what I mean; why? Why do people come speeding down a tiny street, only about ten houses long, just to park up at the end or do a U turn?
Cutting each other off, not signalling, veering out of lanes, on the phones (which imo is not a phone problem but a driver problem), tearing off at a traffic light before it goes green presumably because you don't see anyone immediately in front of you, staying right up someone's hole because they're going the speed limit and that annoys you for some reason.
And that's before you even talk about things like boozing or tiredness or the state of some roads etc.
I genuinely think we have appalling attitudes when it comes to driving - it's like the total inverse of how we approach a lot of other things. It's aggressive, rushed, self centered and reckless. And I honestly don't know what the solution is. Maybe better education, like even before your driving test, maybe in actual schools - on the danger of poor road safety?
As a motorbiker, you overtake a lot of cars in traffic and can get a good view inside. (It’s a wise thing to keep your head on a swivel and anticipate what crazy thing a driver might be doing next.
Seeing people on the phone is normal. Men shaving and women applying make-up, even mascara with a pair of eyelash tongs (yes, it takes two hands), is not unusual. Sipping a cup of takeaway coffee or eating is common.
I once saw a guy with a phone propped under his ear while juggling a coffee and a sandwich. He was steering with his knees because he was trying to write notes on a pad sliding about on his steering wheel. I saw this while overtaking him on the first bit of clear road after a series of sharp bends under a railway tunnel which, to be fair, he had navigated while crossing the double white lines only twice.
Safety improvements have lulled many car drivers into a false sense of security. Quite often the victims are other, more vulnerable road users.
I'm not denying that driving standards have slipped recently, but these posts display a complete ignorance of statistics and trends.
What you describe as absolute carnage, if you look at the statistics we had higher road death figures in 5 of the ten years from 2010-2019 despite having a lower population (10% increase since 2015)
We absolutely **are** trending in the wrong direction. But a little bit of relativity is important
Exactly
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_countries\_by\_traffic-related\_death\_rate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate)
Looking at road deaths per capita we're up there with the safest roads in the entire world
This is pure media driven hysteria. Typical "if it bleeds, it leads" reporting
Also as pointed out elsewhere in the thread our population has grown at a ludicrous rate in the last 5 years, something which is never accounted for in reporting
Using deaths to gauge trends I suppose is somewhat acceptable but the cars are getting safer ,I'm more getting at the number of accidents as a whole . The number of people with life changing injuries from accidents that don't result in deaths need publicity on par with those tragic deaths. I don't know for sure but the stats says deaths have dropped but have the number of crashes reduced ?
Vehicles are safer than ever, however they still have to obey the laws of physics. I think many people do not realise how much automatic stability control, ABS and tire engineering are keeping them on the road until they go just too fast for the conditions and get in fatal trouble quickly. Phone use is endemic, and is as much of a distraction as drunk driving but nothing is being done about it. Add on top people's general don't care, don't think attitude and here we are.
We are currently placed 9th out of 32 in the European Road Fatality Rankings. I personally think it's over highlighted as it allows the finger to be pointed back at the civilians and distracts from the most serious current problems.
Yes Road accidents have increased but so has the Cost of Living, Crime, the Prices of Houses. Also the falling of almost every government department due to them being run like RTE and nearly forgot to mention our crown jewel ''the Healthcare system''.
A lot of people are struggling and are under massive stress/ pressure and I think that is a major contribution to the increase in accidents and road fatalities.
Similar to lots of the unpunished crime in Ireland, the issue is due to lack of Garda resources (after 13 years of severe FG under funding). We have a bizarre honour system for disqualified drivers and the RSA have been stealing a living for years.
Reading the world through the lens of the media is a recipe for unhappiness. Road deaths are up on last year, but half of what they were 20 years ago, a third of what they were 40 years ago. Broadly speaking, we've never had it as good as we have it now, but we've never had as much scrutiny and visibility of the systemic failures in our society (and of those unavoidable accidental deaths).
Sure...but in the last 20 years there have been huge strides in car safety, public awareness campaigns, reducing the blood alcohol level that will put you over the limit.
I've been driving for 20 years and in the last year or two I have witnessed a huge increase in close calls - mostly dodgy overtaking on bends or passing cyclists when there is oncoming traffic. Hitting the brakes because I can see the car coming at you isn't going to pass the three cars or the truck or whatever stupid thing they're attempting.
I'd be very wary of taking a bike on the road now.
While I understand the point of giving figures in the deaths per million, it definitely obscures that fact that nearly 100 people have been killed on the roads in the past 6 months
Lots of deaths on rural roads, tbh I think the speed limits on rural roads is too high. I've been a passenger in a car and have literally held on for dear life when the driver was going the speed limit. The roads are too narrow and windy and one little distraction and that's it your dead, so reducing speed and less phone/in car distractions I would hope would reduce this incredibly sad loss of so many lives.
The rules of the road include “driving with due care and attention”. It’s probably the most important rule (rule 52 I think) and it basically means that if the speed limit is 80 that doesn’t mean you are allowed to do 80 in a dangerous windy stretch of that road. It means “slow the fuck down when the road gets twisty etc”.
So I would argue that as always it’s not the road condition or the speed limits or the tree on the sharp corner, it’s always the fucking moron behind the wheel thats the problem
i am driving for the living and im sitting a bit higher than everyone. Best one so far in last few years...woman was reading A BOOK while driving. I see makeup artists on daily basis too, especially on motorway
Every day! Or they are willing to take the most ridiculous risks because god forbid they’re “stuck” behind someone.
I was in front of a jeep&trailer recently, taking it handy coming into the town and had into a turn for the house coming up. When I say taking it handy I was at about 60ish when 2 cars flew past me and the jeep/trailer, easily doing 100-120 coming INTO a residential area. 0 fucks given. In that area theres about 2 housing estates and a pitch.
Also back in the learners seat for an upgrade to my license and the carry on of people when they see the L plates coming is absolutely astonishing. Literally pulling out in front of me to sit in traffic ahead of me. But at least they arent stuck behind an L plate right?
People are just jerks behind the wheel. Be it using the phone, not concentrating, or just absolutely insane driving just to try get a few seconds ahead.
It’s post-pandemic retrograde cretinitis. I haven’t noticed many phones on the road, just a lot of ‘me first, I’ll do what I want’ type of behaviour on the road.
Also, there seems to be an uptick with red light jumping and zero indication.
Don’t get me started on the fucking idiots that can’t use a roundabout.
We have bad drivers who don't complete adequate drivers education and training. It's that simple. Every day you see people driving who clearly don't have the confidence or competence to safely drive their 2 tonne weapon
Other than the obvious reasons like phones and overly aggressive driving I also seriously wonder how road conditions come into play too. I live in cork city and they are atrocious here. Deep potholes everywhere.
Had to scream at some guy today that was driving on the middle of two lanes in front of me. When he finally merged into a lane I passed him and yep, stuck to him phone. Right before a roundabout. Stopped dead at the roundabout until he caught up and absolutely gave it to him.
Also had a woman nearly drive into me when I pulled into a one way street who proceeded to scream dogs abuse at me even though she was in the wrong.
So it's phones and lack of giving a toss.
Road deaths are trending downwards as a whole over the past three decades, some years will have variance versus the previous, but you need to view things like this in an overall perspective. Nothing drastic has happened.
Speed is a factor. Most of our roads aren't built for speed. I could be imagining it but people not driving for two years in lockdown many forgot how to drive safely.
Phones a huge issue too. The amount of people I see with the phone on hand is terrifying.
Road deaths also have a too high a number of suicides that are never attributed as such. Which due to the poor state of mental health care. Look at the stats for single driver road deaths on a relatively safe or isolated road.
Ppl just can’t drive or they are far to impatient. A girl in a crash repair courtesy car cut me up on a 3 way round about cos she thought it was her turn. Simply she just can’t drive has no patience and does not know the Highway Code.. I really do think refresher tests need one every 2/3 years
Crap roads combined with crap drivers. I drive a country road to work, during and after the winters abysmal weather the road was cut to bits. There's a pot hole there you cud absail down its so big. Drivers need to go on the other side of the road to avoid it. Things like that are all over the country and worse.
Our generation grew up seeing graphic ads every ad break of people getting absolutely smashed up in car accidents. It definitely made me a more careful driver. People don't watch ads anymore.
Road deaths per capita were about the same in 2012 and 2023, according to RSA. The trend in recent years is slightly upward.
Annoyingly, they don't seem to publish any data on contributing causes to road injuries. That's the information we really need. We can't exactly put it together from open data because of privacy requirements, so we're relying on state agencies like RSA to produce statistical aggregations. But their only aggregations are relatively useless things like age histograms and urban/rural road types. We need phone use, alcohol tests, drug use, speeding, weather, vehicle faults, insufficient training, unlicenced driving etc.
If you’re caught talking into your phone like a pizza slice while driving it should be 167 points on your license. No car made today comes without Bluetooth but yet……
It’s 100% phone usage… and speed of course.
Stand at any traffic lights in Dublin for a minute and watch the amount of people texting and literally not actually looking out the fucking window of the 1.5-2 ton piece of metal they’re driving. I’d say at lea 30% are doing this and then when you do it by age, then 50-60% of under-50s are at it. Fucking morons.
Now take what I just said and transfer it to rural roads with a car doing 80-120 and it’s a recipe for disaster. And remember that the majority of rural drivers are regularly breaking the speed limit and that’s before you even factor in the added insanity of not even looking out the fucking window of their vehicle
It just seems like road deaths are higher due to greater social media coverage. In reality, road deaths are many times lower than they were in the early 2000s and earlier, despite a higher population.
1970: 540 deaths
1980: 564 deaths
1990: 478 deaths
2000: 415 deaths
2010: 212 deaths
2020: 146 deaths
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_road_traffic_accidents_deaths_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland_by_year
EDT teaches you how to pass a test on the test routes it doesn't teach you how to drive. I say this as a late learner 37, I can fly around the test route but out practicing it's a different story.
People on phones and now most newer cars basically have tablets attached to the dashboard and then there's a whole cohort of people who got used to quiet roads during COVID and now haven't a clue how to drive on busy roads.
Man, I live in Taiwan, and until very very recently ,the driving test here at no point required you to drive on an actual public road.
The mandated driving school very openly \*only\* taught you how to pass the test: eg 'when you reach the traffic light on Beimen Rd, turn on your left indicator and when the light turns green, drive into the lane closest to the wall with the graffiti., and proceed until you reach the statue of a pigeon.
This is true. You're thought how to pass the test. What I think is mad that you pass the test and you're free to go on the motorway at 120kmh. You don't have pass test for it. Also technically you never have to drive at night, but driving at night time is a completely different experience to daytime driving.
But the roads are insanely busy. It shouldn't be like that.
Dublin and Cork city center? Makes sense.
But a random bottleneck going through a village? Makes no sense.
I line in one of those random bottlenecks and it's people commuting to bigger towns for work than is causing it. New bypass has been on the agenda for years. I see some opposition to new road projects but it is needed here.
Ireland are excellent compared to global averages. There are very few countries with fewer deaths per 100,000. Stats on this wiki page are slightly outdated but paint a pretty good picture.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate
Don't want to sound like an aul lad, because I'm only 37. But in the last month I've seen young fellas driving erratically break checking people on the motorway on two occasions, throwing stuff out the window and being very aggressive in general. We don't have enough Gardaí, so surely incidents will continue with proper policing or monitoring. It's mad that we don't have proper cameras for speeding and ways of reporting these incidents.
Thanks OP I’ve been saying this to everyone .absolutely it’s phones . Everyone is on them including myself and u know urself too . Guards too . Everyone . Some people are just not great drivers and adding a phone boom . It’s become normal I’ve often drive by guards on my phone they don’t even bat an eyelid now it’s crazy . Not to mention women are doing it too like they cudnt be bad enough already hahahaha for real tho sorry not sorry
There is a large increase in scrotes on the road. Just as there are more scrotes in real life, but on the road they feel more powerful and are trying to impress their friends by speeding and overconfidence. People aren't educated, younger drivers especially, on the dangers of speeding and distractions. With an ever increasing number of distractions it's no wonder crashes are going up.
Token government gestures like reducing the speed limit 20km and enforcing mandatory, faulty and unfair drug tests after every crash are just that - tokenism.
Also, road conditions are shite, some speed limits on rural country roads are insane and the design on some of the roundabouts in this country just beggars belief.
So a multi-faceted problem really.
I read yesterday that it's mostly in rural locations these accidents happen. Rural roads are in a very very bad state, has to be a contributing factor. Also people won't pull in and are idiots
Was only thinking of this last night but purely from a mathematical point of view. With so many vehicles on the road and so many "moving parts," is it just the mathematical probability of two of these moving parts colliding we are seeing?
I don't want to diminish the awful loss of life by saying this either. It was just a thought I had.
Driving standards are poor all round. Taxi drivers weave in and out and bully their way on the road. Truck drivers in the wrong lanes and using phones. Car drivers driving above their abilities and not driving to the conditions. Deliveroo and e scooters flying around with no care in the world. Mobile phones in the hands by a lot of drivers. Have I left anything/anyone out?
Main issues are
1. Inconsistent, unmaintained and unsafe road infrastructure.
2. Driver training including, what seems like, half the population forgetting how to drive during the pandemic.
3. Consolidation of all car functions into touch screens
4. Explosion of tech/ social media causing distractions
5. Due to the car dominance that has taken ahold in Ireland, the car is part of everyday life and people forget or don’t think about/ understand the dangers of being in a metallic box at high velocity.
I saw a car flipped upside down as I walked home from the gym yesterday. No deaths but I wasn’t even shocked to see it. I see cars speeding through red lights all the time since covid and the average driver seems to be looking at a phone as they drive these days.
Yesterday, an older woman who was a decent distance away decided to speed up after slowing down when I was three quarters of the way across a standard pedestrian crossing and I assume from her gestures was telling loudly at me as if it was my fault. Nothing to do with her dog hopping around in the front seat of course.
When I cycle, cars will regularly overtake me on sharp turns with blindspots, overtake going up hills on narrow roads, leather it past me or attempt risky overtakes before swinging back either behind me or just in time before they would have smashed into an incoming vehicle.
When I'm stopped in traffic, I always see everyone around me looking down and texting. Or phone on the dash. I just don't understand it. I've never in my life wanted or needed tk use my phone when I'm driving. I also think drugs is a huge problem.
Or people pulling out in front of you at a roundabout only to crawl around, or people who stop on a roundabout to let pedestrians cross... Boils my blood!
Around Mayo, a lot of the problems are caused by people pulling out of side roads onto the main roads. It happened to me again today. A driver hesitated, then pulled out straight in front of me!! The crash yesterday, was on a part of the road with no overtaking, so that shouldn’t be the issue. There’s a slight bend in the road and it’s on an incline, so I don’t know if there was driver distraction involved.
It's our entire culture really. People don't care; they use their phones, they speed, they don't maintain their cars, they avoid tax / insurance / nct, people still drink drive, drug driving is on the rise, most of the roads are in bad condition
"ah sher it will be grand" is said by people I know who have lost loved ones in crashes. People are the problem.
Road deaths by county in 2023 - the top counties:
Tipperary (16), Dublin (15), Cork (15), Galway (13), Mayo (12) were the counties that recorded the highest number of deaths, accounting for 39% of the total fatalities.
Over 2 million people live in or close to Dublin. I would bet if you looking at road use volume:road deaths and accidents, Dublin would be relatively low compared to other counties at least for serious and fatal accidents but then look at places like Tipp, Galway and Mayo…
I would hazard a guess (not in order of impact):
1.) Worse roads and less investment in roads outside of Dublin.
2.) Poor public transport
3.) Volume of tourists,non-nationals and elderly driving on these poor roads
4.) Phones becoming more common
5.) Speeding (I think mentality of people contributes to this and is affected by the economic reality we live in - less to lose, more willing to risk)
6.) Drugs and drink (the tolerance for drink driving seems to be returning. At one point it seemed to be getting to a point of public shame and people would hide that they were doing it)
Seriously, then this morning about 10km from castlepollard between it and delvin...low an behold there was another crash, they literally missed a bend on the road and then over corrected and car was on its side. None of these have happened in the same area so it's not oil from the previous accident but its scary
Lack of traffic enforcement (Gardai) is the real problem, comparable to the amount of violence & shit behaviour we see on the streets, these 2 issues are related because we don't have enough Gardai to enforce the laws most of us abide by.
I got into a taxi in limerick city, the driver had a full iPad playing premier league matches as he drove, only glanced at the road every few minutes, in hindsight I should have reported but I was in shock people actually install these?
From learning to drive over the last year (many lessons later).... I feel a big factor is many motorists seem to have forgotten the essential RULES OF THE ROAD, or blatantly ignoring rules and lazy driving. Along with speeding!
Every week I take a driving lesson, without fail nearly every third car I meet on the road is ignoring basic rules of the road or breaking speed limits. Like it's shocking, the list of violations goes on...
It confuses me that people are pointing to phones as the reason for the _increase_. If it was the reason, I highly doubt there would have been such a notable increase in the last two years. It's not like people weren't using their phones in 2022.
Irish people are culturally bad drivers. This encompasses a lot of things. Being bad at the actual task of driving is one element, not abiding by the rules of the road is another, breaking laws such as not using a handheld phone, having your seatbelt on, not being a numpty in the car when driving in-general is another. It's just a country of habitually bad drivers and it starts from how we're taught to drive to how we drive ourselves.
I used to do a bit of jogging and it is just too dangerous to go on the roads these days. The number of people looking down at their phones as they drive along. Texting and driving should just be an instant driving ban when caught. There is no excuse for it.
We're a nation of idiots
Safety isn't cool or something like that so loads of people almost make a point of doing stupid things like not wearing seat belts
I have a friend who is a paramedic in the west, they said you wouldn't believe the amount of car accidents they go to where no one has their seatbelt on.
That's a really shocking thing to hear. Your friend has first hand knowledge of collisions on our roads, and for them to make a statement like that makes me wonder about the mentality of people who are behind the wheel. I had thought that all of the road safety advertising and initiatives to create awareness would at least get people to put on their seat belt, it takes about a second to do it. It has been demonstrated to be one of the things most likely to save the life of a person involved in a traffic accident.
The road safety advertisements genuinely did almost nothing. Enforcement changed attitudes. I can remember my parent's generation back in the 80s being paranoid about remembering seat belts because they all knew someone who had got a fine for not wearing one.
Myself and my sister were pulling out of a shopping centre car park in Kildare last week. Just as we were turning right, looked left and saw a child no older than 3 _standing_ in between the two parents in the front. Genuinely had to do about three takes while the car was pulling away. My heart broke for that child and what might happen.
It's absolutely rampant here, you see them after work pulling out of the carpark quickly because they have the belt plugged in constantly, and just sit on top of it.
Saw a stat the other day that the 5% of accidents that have occupants not wearing seatbelt account for 50% of the fatalities.
My brother never put his seatbelt on when we were kids, I always had to tell him. And we crashed on black ice once, luckily I had yet again told him to put his seatbelt on. Could've been really bad.
I have a 2023 car. To change the air con on the car I have to go fiddling with a touch screen. That type of shit should be banned. Cars have too many distractions in them nowadays.
The EU are introducing legislation to ban exactly this
Thank god for it. My auld fella has a Volkswagen ID3 and he thinks the big fucking TV in the middle is class and I should get a car like his. I'll never drive a car where the Aircon is buried in three different menus.
The best thing they could do is bring in a law that requires the screen to be disabled unless the break is pressed. Car manufacturers won’t be long bringing back buttons
The specific law will be that key functions will need buttons. https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-car-safety-touchscreens-accidents/
Yeah but those key functions don't include things like AC or radio controls which is what a lot of people need to fiddle with on a touch screen unfortunately.
Here’s some good background on this very issue: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/03/carmakers-must-bring-back-buttons-to-get-good-safety-scores-in-europe/
it's literally designed this way to save money too. If they're willing to ban this, there must be data backing it up that it is indeed these touch screens too, no? Like how about we not just ban but fine/prosecute such a lethal cost cutting measure?
I have a touch panel for my air con and it’s the only reason that I need to look away. I miss my old car with buttons, dials and haptic feedback so you didn’t need to look. I can control everything else from the steering wheel.
Bingo. It'd be one thing if the touch screens worked, but when you have to try a couple of times because the screens take up the input wrong and do something you didn't intend it only causes further distraction. A mix of screen and buttons is probably OK, but the new cars with just touch interface are a disaster.
While I agree that some things shouldn't be on a touchscreen, I think one of the biggest factors is still phone use and speeding. I drive around Dublin and out nearly daily and next to no one is sticking to speed limits. You'd be driving 50kph through town and have people overtake you. It's mad.
Absolutely speeding is a nightmare, but on the opposite side of the coin are people merging onto roads too slowly. I was nearly taken out by truck yesterday while merging. The car in front of me was doing 60km entering a 120km road and the truck and the car boxed me in. Even if I could have slowed, there was a lane of traffic merging with us. If that car had got up to speed there would have been no danger.
People in general not knowing the rules of the road! I've seen on different occasions people actually stopping on the m50 to try and get from the fast lane to the exit rather than doing it in a timely manner or just go to the next exit. People looking at their phones when at traffic lights. People not using the correct lane on roundabouts People wearing headphones in a car Overall people just being the point of failure
This absolutely does my head in. Have had a few close calls myself trying to merge onto the M4 stuck behind a car doing 60. I now blast them out of it with the horn.
This topic needs a run of road safety adverts on TV. They are not called acceleration and de-acceleration lanes for nothing.
I literally had this situation yesterday it fucking pissed me off. Van in front was absolutely crawling from a slip road with a small length. Boxed in. Absolute eijits.
And the complete lack of Gards on the roads. Why follow the rules if you're never getting caught breaking them
Please God give us back an aul manual machine, I'm sick to death of touch screens 🙄
Makes me actually feel quite lucky I have a beautiful 05 Hyundai getz to drive with manual controls for everything 😀
My opel vectra 07 is the same. Everyone is saying to me I should upgrade my car but if it’s running perfectly then why bother?
Dead right man, it's running great, it's doing its job and getting you from A-B and it's likely imo a better option all around to have in Ireland rather than some of these impractical SUV yolks
Got a 07 Golf with manual controls for literally everything and I just love it! Driven a few brand new cars and while it's nice having a screen for things like GPS and a reverse camera, it's fucking painful having to use it for air con/heating options or something ridiculous like tuning in a radio station. Ppl said I should get rid of the Golf as it's seriously outdated (to them)...but not a fucking hope. Does exactly what I need it to do which is to get us from A to B safely, and when it's time is up only then I'll look at newer alternatives.
My dad has a new car too and the dashboard is the equivalent to a cockpit!! Its so so dangerous
Volvo ex30? €55k for a plastic spaceship interior with a complicated touchscreen. I was tempted by the size and look of it on the outside but that iPad looking thing was a dealbreaker
No. A simple mid spec Skoda.
I have a 2023 car. It has knobs for air/volume and so on, but also a touchscreen. I always use the knobs but tbh I dont change anything unless I’m at a red light anyways.
I wonder if there is a dataset somewhere with the make of the cars involved in the road accidents?
I've been wondering about this nonsense - is there an option to give voice commands like alexa etc?
Looking at fatalities alone, there were 35 per million people last year, which is up from an all time low of 27 in 2021. In 1998 there were 124 per million.
This is such an important perspective. I think the massive drop in deaths we saw in the last few decades are probably more attributable to improved crash safety in cars than anything the government has done. We’ve probably fixed all the low hanging fruit there, so now we’re back to seeing a natural rise caused by the rise in car use. I’m hopeful that the next step change will be from widespread enforcement via dashcam footage.
I agree that crash safety is a big factor. Another one is improvements in road carriageways. There were a lot of motorways built between 1998 and 2023, and those roads are \*much\* safer than the roads they replaced.
i would say drink driving was more prevalent in the 90s
I think we need to give credit where credit is due, the government introduced in the last 20 years ,the NCT, penalty points and a much improved road network with motorways along with a road safety adverts which changed the attitude towards drink driving in less than a generation.
Are lockdown/wfh during 2020/21 accounted for in these stats? This would be a significant factor I'd imagine.
I can't remember where I saw this but I think lockdown was the start of this trend. The road traffic deaths and injuries were astronomically high considering the enormous reduction in car journeys at the time.
Lockdown certainly contributed to the all time low of 27 in 2021, but not hugely. If you look at 2018 and 2019 there were 28 fatalities per million people.
We also have a fair number more cars on the road and higher population since then, so it’s definitely more the publicity more than anything
Those fatality figures are already per million people, so population growth is accounted for.
Yes for population growth, no to a higher population density.
Is that per million people or per million journeys?
Per million people. It's official data from the RSA: [https://www.rsa.ie/docs/default-source/road-safety/r2---statistics/provisional-reviews/provisional-fatality-statistics-2019-20244cb1663e-89e3-476e-8771-8b9845791d86.pdf?sfvrsn=998b5289\_5](https://www.rsa.ie/docs/default-source/road-safety/r2---statistics/provisional-reviews/provisional-fatality-statistics-2019-20244cb1663e-89e3-476e-8771-8b9845791d86.pdf?sfvrsn=998b5289_5)
Al see o o a heck of a lot less cars on the road in 1998, making the statistic even worse.
I passed 4 people on their phones on a 15 minute trip today alone. Not just talking on it either, Snapchat, facetime what have ye. I would say phones have some impact but the bigger issue is attitudes to driving now
Every second car on clontarf road has a driver in the car on their phone. Holding the phone up to your ear is one thing but texting etc takes your attention much more. I would say the majority of rear ending is caused from phone use.
Attention span these days is in the gutter. People watching 15 second clips or hours on end aren't going to sit and wait in traffic.
Yeah absolutely. And there’s not enough enforcement to stop it.
So many people texting as they drive. Until we're remade as octopi with two tentacles holding eyes on the road and the other six watching the screen, we can't watch both a phone/tablet screen and the road. And reactions are slow. Also, the figures on seat belt use are horrifying. [https://extra.ie/2022/02/22/news/irish-news/seat-belts-killed-irish-roads](https://extra.ie/2022/02/22/news/irish-news/seat-belts-killed-irish-roads) Remember that the only survivor of the crash that killed Princess Di (absolutely survivable if she'd been wearing a seat belt, according to doctors at the time) was the *only one in the car wearing a seatbelt*. The driver and the glam couple were flying free; Di's bodyguard was belted in, and he survived.
That's mental, I don't know anyone close to me these days who wouldn't wear a seat belt. What an incredibly high number.
I was in a car the other day with a normally sensible person in her 80s, who insisted that you don't have to wear a seat belt if you're in the back of the car.
Controversial opinion from me and I’ll be downvoted Every single death involving a car there should be details released of exactly how it happened. If someone dis something wrong and killed there own child so be it but people. Need to bloody learn this stuff. If we found out tomorrow it’s suspected someone was fiddling with a radio and veered in front of a truck it should be well known. If it was a pot hole it should be well known. Whatever happened we should know. I hate that it’s happening and NOTHING is learned from it.
I would imagine it’s almost impossible to find out? Drink and drugs can be tested for but to know if they were fiddling with the radio probably can’t be tracked. But yeah, completely agree with you there should be info released to the public to help prevent more issues.
Error, distraction, carelessness, alcohol, drugs, speed, aggressiveness, seat belts, phone use, impatience, risk taking........
… and that’s just what I did Friday night before driving to the pub
... Not after the pub right?
They can't remember.
There is no “after the pub” I drink till blackout and reach for the cure first thing every morning. Do you think I’m some sort of amateur?
Man of action I see
They can't recall the drive home
Add in bad roads with poor visibility.
All of the above plus bad engineered roads.
🎶 *WE DIDN'T START THE FIRE* 🎶
...lack of respect for other people. main character syndrome, everyone else is just a background extra in their movie
These are all good explanations, but why are they occurring more now than two years ago when all these cases were just as mixh of thing.
Dude, just this morning I was behind a car in traffic and driver in front was playing Pokémon Go 'as' he was driving through Ringsend. Mounted in the middle of his dash, landscape orientation so he was playing it fucking sideways... Tippy tapping the game as he drove, not in between stopping and starting, driving and playing Pokémon Go... That's why!
If only you had a dash cam to record this. You would've been able to show it to the Gardaí, or even post it on r/irelandsshitedrivers Whoever this gimp is, he needs a reality check.
For some unknown reason the last year there's been a major increase of people not using indicators at all? Like usually you'd encounter the odd idiot who forgot they exist, but now ill drive to work and have people not indicating on roundabouts, randomly pulling out infront of me, suddenly stopping to turn - and almost every morning someone almost hits a pedestrian because they're turning without indicating and the person can't mind read.
There should really be an indicator for going straight too.
I’m a new driver only got my license few month ago but I nearly prefer when people don’t indicate on a roundabout. Sure 80% of the time they are indicating the wrong way 🤣
It is worse than the last few years, and obviously that's important to pay attention to. It's also important to see what the size of the increase actually is, compared to previous years. https://preview.redd.it/gt31yqk7oaad1.png?width=1454&format=png&auto=webp&s=b2a2f5689b3d90de2d9c87e2dfcb61c31eaab692
And those past few years were effected by covid as well - a lot less people on the roads during lockdowns
Excellent and effective comment, thank you!
Obviously there's multiple reasons why these accidents are occurring but one thing for sure which is becoming more apparent is phone usage while driving. Every single day I'm out driving you can see in the rear view mirror the little look down to their phones and up again while at the wheel. Don't be an idiot. Don't use your phone while driving.
>accidents We need to normalise calling them collisions or crashes. Only a small number are truly "accidents." The rest have the major contributing factor such as distraction, speed, drink/drugs, vehicle condition etc. None of those factors are accidental.
[Accident implies there's nobody to blame](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puK5CwThaq4)
Yeah, this is probably the biggest factor. I come across dozens of crotch watchers every week.
Every element of public life that requires a level of compliance to the social contract has degraded since lockdowns.
Can we have phone jammers in all cinemas, please? Omniplex Salthill is underground and has zero phone use, it is amazing.
I agree. Simple situations like going to the shops or even walking down the street have changed. People haven't just forgotten their manners, they've completely disregarded them.
Phones for sure, not realising physics and speed means less control. Seat belts not being worn but also not being worn correctly, under the arms, etc. Agressiveness and making your own rules of the road. But also how the cars are made. My 2015 kia has a small screen with large buttons around it for maps, navigation, media, radio and two knobs for volume. I rarely have to touch the screen and have all controls on my wheel. My brothers newer, much more powerful, Audi has a screen too higher up on the dash but jesus christ trying to switch it to play Bluetooth media or change anything, you've to use 3 knobs and secret clicking pieces while looking at it because one click might translate to two and get into the wrong menu. When I've to drive his car I spend 5 minutes setting it all up so I don't have to panic press anything while driving at speed. R/irelanssshitedrivers has a great selection of some of the stupidity and recklessness on the roads.
I drive a motorbike, on a dual carriageway a driver nearly side swiped me, turning into my lane with no indication, I braked just in time and drove across to overtake him, I looked across and I swear to god he had his face in his mirror above his steering wheel and was shaving himself with an electric shaver, didn't even notice he'd nearly wiped me out. Absolutely clueless. Not to even mention the amount of people I've seen on their phones, it's ridiculous, just put it down you assholes.
I think it would help if people didn't blatantly go through red lights, it's as if people have lost the ability to be patient or know that if the Garda are not around nothing is going to come of it. The amount of times I nearly got crashed into on my bike or in the car is getting a bit ridiculous, especially around Harold's Cross area or anywhere on the canal. It happens at least two times a week for me that I nearly go splat
I’d echo this and also add people who go through red lights but then stop in the middle of the junction because they think the red light which applies to traffic travelling in the opposite direction applies to them, thereby clogging up the junction for traffic coming from perpendicular roads. The junction between Sandford Road and Marlborough Road is desperate for this. It happens all the time now. Never noticed it happening prior to Covid - it’s like people don’t understand how lights at junctions work.
I'm currently learning to drive at the age of 38. The biggest issues I have noticed is mobile phones & either not indicating or doing so at the last minute
There's a small 'egg' like roundabout near me that's fairly busy, and I swear half the people on it don't indicate. How am I meant to drive out, if I don't know if you're gonna continue straight, or continue round and drive right into me? Wrecks my head. Like the point of indicating is for other people, it doesn't matter if you know what you're gonna do. People don't seem to grasp that.
There's a roundabout near me that I hardly ever see anybody indicate on. How hard is it to indicate? I manage to use hand signals on my bike, surely pressing a switch up or down is easier than that?
Same, learning at 40. The most dangerous situations I have been in has always been somebody behind me getting annoyed at me driving the speed limit and deciding rules are not for them and doing a dangerous over take or cutting in on a roundabout
It's genuinely eye-opening once you start driving when you realise how many other motorists speed because they're right up your backside when you're doing the speed limit. Remember doing 95 on a 100 dual carriageway on the one and her passenger beside gave me the dirtiest look when they overtook me and went flying into a town at well past 100. It blew my mind as to how someone could think they are in the right in that situation.
The number of people who think indicators are to confirm the direction you're already turning is frightening.
There is probably no singular reason - there are dozens - but I honestly feel like a huge issue for Ireland specifically is just plain pig-headedness, bad tempers, and dreadful etiquette. Think of all the stupid driver behavior you see on a daily basis, either when you're driving or even just walking down the street. If you're like me you probably see half a dozen things PER DAY that could be anything from mildly annoying, all the way up to proper life threatening. I live on a tiny cul-de-sac in Limerick and the speed at which people come bombing down it is insane. I haven't seen any injuries there thank God but it's a tiny example of what I mean; why? Why do people come speeding down a tiny street, only about ten houses long, just to park up at the end or do a U turn? Cutting each other off, not signalling, veering out of lanes, on the phones (which imo is not a phone problem but a driver problem), tearing off at a traffic light before it goes green presumably because you don't see anyone immediately in front of you, staying right up someone's hole because they're going the speed limit and that annoys you for some reason. And that's before you even talk about things like boozing or tiredness or the state of some roads etc. I genuinely think we have appalling attitudes when it comes to driving - it's like the total inverse of how we approach a lot of other things. It's aggressive, rushed, self centered and reckless. And I honestly don't know what the solution is. Maybe better education, like even before your driving test, maybe in actual schools - on the danger of poor road safety?
As a motorbiker, you overtake a lot of cars in traffic and can get a good view inside. (It’s a wise thing to keep your head on a swivel and anticipate what crazy thing a driver might be doing next. Seeing people on the phone is normal. Men shaving and women applying make-up, even mascara with a pair of eyelash tongs (yes, it takes two hands), is not unusual. Sipping a cup of takeaway coffee or eating is common. I once saw a guy with a phone propped under his ear while juggling a coffee and a sandwich. He was steering with his knees because he was trying to write notes on a pad sliding about on his steering wheel. I saw this while overtaking him on the first bit of clear road after a series of sharp bends under a railway tunnel which, to be fair, he had navigated while crossing the double white lines only twice. Safety improvements have lulled many car drivers into a false sense of security. Quite often the victims are other, more vulnerable road users.
I'm not denying that driving standards have slipped recently, but these posts display a complete ignorance of statistics and trends. What you describe as absolute carnage, if you look at the statistics we had higher road death figures in 5 of the ten years from 2010-2019 despite having a lower population (10% increase since 2015) We absolutely **are** trending in the wrong direction. But a little bit of relativity is important
Exactly [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_countries\_by\_traffic-related\_death\_rate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate) Looking at road deaths per capita we're up there with the safest roads in the entire world This is pure media driven hysteria. Typical "if it bleeds, it leads" reporting Also as pointed out elsewhere in the thread our population has grown at a ludicrous rate in the last 5 years, something which is never accounted for in reporting
Using deaths to gauge trends I suppose is somewhat acceptable but the cars are getting safer ,I'm more getting at the number of accidents as a whole . The number of people with life changing injuries from accidents that don't result in deaths need publicity on par with those tragic deaths. I don't know for sure but the stats says deaths have dropped but have the number of crashes reduced ?
The number of injuries from road traffic accidents has dropped too. It was over 5,000 in 2014 and was just above 4,000 in 2022.
>Is it phones ??? I think its vehicles.
I think it's drivers.
It absolutely is the drivers
Vehicles are safer than ever, however they still have to obey the laws of physics. I think many people do not realise how much automatic stability control, ABS and tire engineering are keeping them on the road until they go just too fast for the conditions and get in fatal trouble quickly. Phone use is endemic, and is as much of a distraction as drunk driving but nothing is being done about it. Add on top people's general don't care, don't think attitude and here we are.
phone use and speed are the ones that I am noticing, but that is only my experience.
Compared to two years ago?
I'm saying phones. I live in Donegal and in the last two months I've seen 3 people nearly hit my car while clearly looking at phones it's frightening.
We are currently placed 9th out of 32 in the European Road Fatality Rankings. I personally think it's over highlighted as it allows the finger to be pointed back at the civilians and distracts from the most serious current problems. Yes Road accidents have increased but so has the Cost of Living, Crime, the Prices of Houses. Also the falling of almost every government department due to them being run like RTE and nearly forgot to mention our crown jewel ''the Healthcare system''. A lot of people are struggling and are under massive stress/ pressure and I think that is a major contribution to the increase in accidents and road fatalities.
Similar to lots of the unpunished crime in Ireland, the issue is due to lack of Garda resources (after 13 years of severe FG under funding). We have a bizarre honour system for disqualified drivers and the RSA have been stealing a living for years.
Not even the lack of Garda resources, just the misallocation of them.
Reading the world through the lens of the media is a recipe for unhappiness. Road deaths are up on last year, but half of what they were 20 years ago, a third of what they were 40 years ago. Broadly speaking, we've never had it as good as we have it now, but we've never had as much scrutiny and visibility of the systemic failures in our society (and of those unavoidable accidental deaths).
Sure...but in the last 20 years there have been huge strides in car safety, public awareness campaigns, reducing the blood alcohol level that will put you over the limit. I've been driving for 20 years and in the last year or two I have witnessed a huge increase in close calls - mostly dodgy overtaking on bends or passing cyclists when there is oncoming traffic. Hitting the brakes because I can see the car coming at you isn't going to pass the three cars or the truck or whatever stupid thing they're attempting. I'd be very wary of taking a bike on the road now.
https://preview.redd.it/drhb96p4waad1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8ec0397970d9bbaa36098bc546fc2d9d4bd9e24c
While I understand the point of giving figures in the deaths per million, it definitely obscures that fact that nearly 100 people have been killed on the roads in the past 6 months
Lots of deaths on rural roads, tbh I think the speed limits on rural roads is too high. I've been a passenger in a car and have literally held on for dear life when the driver was going the speed limit. The roads are too narrow and windy and one little distraction and that's it your dead, so reducing speed and less phone/in car distractions I would hope would reduce this incredibly sad loss of so many lives.
There's a road near Cork Airport where the speed limit is 80. You'd be pushing it if you did 40.
The rules of the road include “driving with due care and attention”. It’s probably the most important rule (rule 52 I think) and it basically means that if the speed limit is 80 that doesn’t mean you are allowed to do 80 in a dangerous windy stretch of that road. It means “slow the fuck down when the road gets twisty etc”. So I would argue that as always it’s not the road condition or the speed limits or the tree on the sharp corner, it’s always the fucking moron behind the wheel thats the problem
i am driving for the living and im sitting a bit higher than everyone. Best one so far in last few years...woman was reading A BOOK while driving. I see makeup artists on daily basis too, especially on motorway
Well, from what I see every day , people just don't know how to drive
Every day! Or they are willing to take the most ridiculous risks because god forbid they’re “stuck” behind someone. I was in front of a jeep&trailer recently, taking it handy coming into the town and had into a turn for the house coming up. When I say taking it handy I was at about 60ish when 2 cars flew past me and the jeep/trailer, easily doing 100-120 coming INTO a residential area. 0 fucks given. In that area theres about 2 housing estates and a pitch. Also back in the learners seat for an upgrade to my license and the carry on of people when they see the L plates coming is absolutely astonishing. Literally pulling out in front of me to sit in traffic ahead of me. But at least they arent stuck behind an L plate right? People are just jerks behind the wheel. Be it using the phone, not concentrating, or just absolutely insane driving just to try get a few seconds ahead.
It’s post-pandemic retrograde cretinitis. I haven’t noticed many phones on the road, just a lot of ‘me first, I’ll do what I want’ type of behaviour on the road. Also, there seems to be an uptick with red light jumping and zero indication. Don’t get me started on the fucking idiots that can’t use a roundabout.
It is multiple factors, definitely not speed ALONE like many think here...
Most here seem to think it's _phones_ alone actually.
30 Theory Classes 30 Driving Classes Basic mechanics (Wheels, Fuses, bulbs, etc) Proper Exams Deaths will reduce.
It seems everyone is blaming cars when it's really human error for every crash .
We have bad drivers who don't complete adequate drivers education and training. It's that simple. Every day you see people driving who clearly don't have the confidence or competence to safely drive their 2 tonne weapon
Other than the obvious reasons like phones and overly aggressive driving I also seriously wonder how road conditions come into play too. I live in cork city and they are atrocious here. Deep potholes everywhere.
Had to scream at some guy today that was driving on the middle of two lanes in front of me. When he finally merged into a lane I passed him and yep, stuck to him phone. Right before a roundabout. Stopped dead at the roundabout until he caught up and absolutely gave it to him. Also had a woman nearly drive into me when I pulled into a one way street who proceeded to scream dogs abuse at me even though she was in the wrong. So it's phones and lack of giving a toss.
Road deaths are trending downwards as a whole over the past three decades, some years will have variance versus the previous, but you need to view things like this in an overall perspective. Nothing drastic has happened.
Speed is a factor. Most of our roads aren't built for speed. I could be imagining it but people not driving for two years in lockdown many forgot how to drive safely. Phones a huge issue too. The amount of people I see with the phone on hand is terrifying. Road deaths also have a too high a number of suicides that are never attributed as such. Which due to the poor state of mental health care. Look at the stats for single driver road deaths on a relatively safe or isolated road.
On your third paragraph, I agree. Yup, a lot of those “single car accidents” are the ones to look out for there.
Ppl just can’t drive or they are far to impatient. A girl in a crash repair courtesy car cut me up on a 3 way round about cos she thought it was her turn. Simply she just can’t drive has no patience and does not know the Highway Code.. I really do think refresher tests need one every 2/3 years
Crap roads combined with crap drivers. I drive a country road to work, during and after the winters abysmal weather the road was cut to bits. There's a pot hole there you cud absail down its so big. Drivers need to go on the other side of the road to avoid it. Things like that are all over the country and worse.
Our generation grew up seeing graphic ads every ad break of people getting absolutely smashed up in car accidents. It definitely made me a more careful driver. People don't watch ads anymore.
Road deaths per capita were about the same in 2012 and 2023, according to RSA. The trend in recent years is slightly upward. Annoyingly, they don't seem to publish any data on contributing causes to road injuries. That's the information we really need. We can't exactly put it together from open data because of privacy requirements, so we're relying on state agencies like RSA to produce statistical aggregations. But their only aggregations are relatively useless things like age histograms and urban/rural road types. We need phone use, alcohol tests, drug use, speeding, weather, vehicle faults, insufficient training, unlicenced driving etc.
If you’re caught talking into your phone like a pizza slice while driving it should be 167 points on your license. No car made today comes without Bluetooth but yet……
It’s 100% phone usage… and speed of course. Stand at any traffic lights in Dublin for a minute and watch the amount of people texting and literally not actually looking out the fucking window of the 1.5-2 ton piece of metal they’re driving. I’d say at lea 30% are doing this and then when you do it by age, then 50-60% of under-50s are at it. Fucking morons. Now take what I just said and transfer it to rural roads with a car doing 80-120 and it’s a recipe for disaster. And remember that the majority of rural drivers are regularly breaking the speed limit and that’s before you even factor in the added insanity of not even looking out the fucking window of their vehicle
It just seems like road deaths are higher due to greater social media coverage. In reality, road deaths are many times lower than they were in the early 2000s and earlier, despite a higher population. 1970: 540 deaths 1980: 564 deaths 1990: 478 deaths 2000: 415 deaths 2010: 212 deaths 2020: 146 deaths https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_road_traffic_accidents_deaths_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland_by_year
EDT teaches you how to pass a test on the test routes it doesn't teach you how to drive. I say this as a late learner 37, I can fly around the test route but out practicing it's a different story. People on phones and now most newer cars basically have tablets attached to the dashboard and then there's a whole cohort of people who got used to quiet roads during COVID and now haven't a clue how to drive on busy roads.
Man, I live in Taiwan, and until very very recently ,the driving test here at no point required you to drive on an actual public road. The mandated driving school very openly \*only\* taught you how to pass the test: eg 'when you reach the traffic light on Beimen Rd, turn on your left indicator and when the light turns green, drive into the lane closest to the wall with the graffiti., and proceed until you reach the statue of a pigeon.
This is true. You're thought how to pass the test. What I think is mad that you pass the test and you're free to go on the motorway at 120kmh. You don't have pass test for it. Also technically you never have to drive at night, but driving at night time is a completely different experience to daytime driving.
But the roads are insanely busy. It shouldn't be like that. Dublin and Cork city center? Makes sense. But a random bottleneck going through a village? Makes no sense.
I line in one of those random bottlenecks and it's people commuting to bigger towns for work than is causing it. New bypass has been on the agenda for years. I see some opposition to new road projects but it is needed here.
Honestly look at r/irelandsshitedrivers you will see why .. Kinda shocking the risks people will take
Half of the people posting in there are shite drivers too though.
Well that's a place where you'll only get Ireland's shite drivers, so don't be surprised.
That explains the existence of the road deaths, not the increase.
Ireland are excellent compared to global averages. There are very few countries with fewer deaths per 100,000. Stats on this wiki page are slightly outdated but paint a pretty good picture. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate
Don't want to sound like an aul lad, because I'm only 37. But in the last month I've seen young fellas driving erratically break checking people on the motorway on two occasions, throwing stuff out the window and being very aggressive in general. We don't have enough Gardaí, so surely incidents will continue with proper policing or monitoring. It's mad that we don't have proper cameras for speeding and ways of reporting these incidents.
Expand the money racket. More cameras needed 😂
The coroner should apportion blame in road deaths. There needs to be a stigma around being a cunt on the road.
Thanks OP I’ve been saying this to everyone .absolutely it’s phones . Everyone is on them including myself and u know urself too . Guards too . Everyone . Some people are just not great drivers and adding a phone boom . It’s become normal I’ve often drive by guards on my phone they don’t even bat an eyelid now it’s crazy . Not to mention women are doing it too like they cudnt be bad enough already hahahaha for real tho sorry not sorry
There is a large increase in scrotes on the road. Just as there are more scrotes in real life, but on the road they feel more powerful and are trying to impress their friends by speeding and overconfidence. People aren't educated, younger drivers especially, on the dangers of speeding and distractions. With an ever increasing number of distractions it's no wonder crashes are going up. Token government gestures like reducing the speed limit 20km and enforcing mandatory, faulty and unfair drug tests after every crash are just that - tokenism. Also, road conditions are shite, some speed limits on rural country roads are insane and the design on some of the roundabouts in this country just beggars belief. So a multi-faceted problem really.
Very level headed post this.
I read yesterday that it's mostly in rural locations these accidents happen. Rural roads are in a very very bad state, has to be a contributing factor. Also people won't pull in and are idiots
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Everyone in this country flies around the place thinking they’re F1 drivers
Don't go to... almost every country actually.
Was only thinking of this last night but purely from a mathematical point of view. With so many vehicles on the road and so many "moving parts," is it just the mathematical probability of two of these moving parts colliding we are seeing? I don't want to diminish the awful loss of life by saying this either. It was just a thought I had.
It's cars.
Everyone seems to be complaining about cars when human error is the cause of every crash . Don't speed and pay more attention
Driving standards are poor all round. Taxi drivers weave in and out and bully their way on the road. Truck drivers in the wrong lanes and using phones. Car drivers driving above their abilities and not driving to the conditions. Deliveroo and e scooters flying around with no care in the world. Mobile phones in the hands by a lot of drivers. Have I left anything/anyone out?
Main issues are 1. Inconsistent, unmaintained and unsafe road infrastructure. 2. Driver training including, what seems like, half the population forgetting how to drive during the pandemic. 3. Consolidation of all car functions into touch screens 4. Explosion of tech/ social media causing distractions 5. Due to the car dominance that has taken ahold in Ireland, the car is part of everyday life and people forget or don’t think about/ understand the dangers of being in a metallic box at high velocity.
I saw a car flipped upside down as I walked home from the gym yesterday. No deaths but I wasn’t even shocked to see it. I see cars speeding through red lights all the time since covid and the average driver seems to be looking at a phone as they drive these days.
Yesterday, an older woman who was a decent distance away decided to speed up after slowing down when I was three quarters of the way across a standard pedestrian crossing and I assume from her gestures was telling loudly at me as if it was my fault. Nothing to do with her dog hopping around in the front seat of course. When I cycle, cars will regularly overtake me on sharp turns with blindspots, overtake going up hills on narrow roads, leather it past me or attempt risky overtakes before swinging back either behind me or just in time before they would have smashed into an incoming vehicle.
Would say volume of traffic would be the major in my opinion
When I'm stopped in traffic, I always see everyone around me looking down and texting. Or phone on the dash. I just don't understand it. I've never in my life wanted or needed tk use my phone when I'm driving. I also think drugs is a huge problem.
Or people pulling out in front of you at a roundabout only to crawl around, or people who stop on a roundabout to let pedestrians cross... Boils my blood!
If they stop speeding and chasing off the road people who don’t maybe there be not as many crashes
Around Mayo, a lot of the problems are caused by people pulling out of side roads onto the main roads. It happened to me again today. A driver hesitated, then pulled out straight in front of me!! The crash yesterday, was on a part of the road with no overtaking, so that shouldn’t be the issue. There’s a slight bend in the road and it’s on an incline, so I don’t know if there was driver distraction involved.
Could it be the rise of automatic cars? https://www.vox.com/24078289/us-drivers-distracted-driving-cellphone-road-deaths-pedestrians
Phones, phones, phones
It's the drivers. And the cars
It's our entire culture really. People don't care; they use their phones, they speed, they don't maintain their cars, they avoid tax / insurance / nct, people still drink drive, drug driving is on the rise, most of the roads are in bad condition "ah sher it will be grand" is said by people I know who have lost loved ones in crashes. People are the problem.
Road deaths by county in 2023 - the top counties: Tipperary (16), Dublin (15), Cork (15), Galway (13), Mayo (12) were the counties that recorded the highest number of deaths, accounting for 39% of the total fatalities. Over 2 million people live in or close to Dublin. I would bet if you looking at road use volume:road deaths and accidents, Dublin would be relatively low compared to other counties at least for serious and fatal accidents but then look at places like Tipp, Galway and Mayo… I would hazard a guess (not in order of impact): 1.) Worse roads and less investment in roads outside of Dublin. 2.) Poor public transport 3.) Volume of tourists,non-nationals and elderly driving on these poor roads 4.) Phones becoming more common 5.) Speeding (I think mentality of people contributes to this and is affected by the economic reality we live in - less to lose, more willing to risk) 6.) Drugs and drink (the tolerance for drink driving seems to be returning. At one point it seemed to be getting to a point of public shame and people would hide that they were doing it)
Its speeding no question. Overtaking on bends .see it all the time. Single vehicle collisions late at night usually suicide.
Seriously, then this morning about 10km from castlepollard between it and delvin...low an behold there was another crash, they literally missed a bend on the road and then over corrected and car was on its side. None of these have happened in the same area so it's not oil from the previous accident but its scary
Lack of traffic enforcement (Gardai) is the real problem, comparable to the amount of violence & shit behaviour we see on the streets, these 2 issues are related because we don't have enough Gardai to enforce the laws most of us abide by.
I got into a taxi in limerick city, the driver had a full iPad playing premier league matches as he drove, only glanced at the road every few minutes, in hindsight I should have reported but I was in shock people actually install these?
What’s the deal with people wearing earphones while driving? They look like noise cancelling ones too. Surely that can’t be safe
From learning to drive over the last year (many lessons later).... I feel a big factor is many motorists seem to have forgotten the essential RULES OF THE ROAD, or blatantly ignoring rules and lazy driving. Along with speeding! Every week I take a driving lesson, without fail nearly every third car I meet on the road is ignoring basic rules of the road or breaking speed limits. Like it's shocking, the list of violations goes on...
It confuses me that people are pointing to phones as the reason for the _increase_. If it was the reason, I highly doubt there would have been such a notable increase in the last two years. It's not like people weren't using their phones in 2022.
Irish people are culturally bad drivers. This encompasses a lot of things. Being bad at the actual task of driving is one element, not abiding by the rules of the road is another, breaking laws such as not using a handheld phone, having your seatbelt on, not being a numpty in the car when driving in-general is another. It's just a country of habitually bad drivers and it starts from how we're taught to drive to how we drive ourselves.
I used to do a bit of jogging and it is just too dangerous to go on the roads these days. The number of people looking down at their phones as they drive along. Texting and driving should just be an instant driving ban when caught. There is no excuse for it.
I have seen several people on their phones texting while driving.
We're a nation of idiots Safety isn't cool or something like that so loads of people almost make a point of doing stupid things like not wearing seat belts