At the funeral Mass of Shay Duffy, the 21-year-old who died in a road crash in Co Louth earlier this month, his younger brothers Ben and Vinnie took to the altar for the prayers of the faithful.
Standing in front of the hundreds gathered at St Patrick’s Church, outside Carrickmacross in Co Monaghan last Saturday afternoon, Ben said Duffy was “the best brother” to him and Vinnie.
“I will miss not seeing you but I know you will be watching over us,” he said.
“Thank you for everything you did for us, especially getting us the sweets and jerseys. We will love you forever.”
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Duffy’s funeral service followed that of his friend Chloe McGee (23), who died in the crash in Dundalk alongside Alan McCluskey (23), Dylan Commins (23) and Chloe Hipson (21).
They had been travelling in a Volkswagen Golf on their way for a night out when their car collided with a Toyota Land Cruiser on the night of November 15th.
It was the worst tragedy on an Irish road in 15 years; eight people died in 2010 in a head-on collision between two cars outside Glasmullen in Co Donegal.
In a communion reflection at McGee’s funeral Mass her brother Aaron said “the ordinary turned into the unthinkable” in one moment.
“Rest gently, Chloe. You are missed in ways words can only try to hold,” he told the congregation at St Joseph’s Church in Carrickmacross.
The national shock at five young people being killed in a road crash was followed by a male pedestrian dying after being struck by a car in Waterford city the morning after Duffy and McGee’s funerals.
On Monday, a collision involving three vehicles – a Bus Éireann bus, a lorry and a car – at Gormanston, Co Meath, resulted in the death of two men with several others injured.
The victims were named as lorry driver Wesley O’Reilly, aged in his 40s from north county Dublin, and bus driver Paul Conway, from Tallanstown in Co Louth, who was aged in his 50s. A man in his 80s died in a single-vehicle crash in Co Kildare on Wednesday.
The spate of deaths has brought road safety into sharp focus.
So far this year, 164 people have been killed on Irish roads, according to figures from An Garda Síochána – seven more compared with the same period in 2024. Last year, 175 people died on the roads, down from 184 in 2023 but up significantly from 155 in 2022.
Susan Gray, founder of the PARC road-safety and victim-support group, describes the recent spike in road fatalities as “horrendous”.
Gray’s husband Steve died after being knocked down by an unaccompanied learner driver on St Stephen’s Day 2004 in Inishowen, Co Donegal.
“These are 164 people that are gone,” she says. “They won’t be celebrating Christmas with their families. The families will be visiting them at their graves this Christmas. When you think about it, it’s hard to comprehend.”
Gray has been campaigning for the last 20 years to improve road safety in a number of areas, such as the lowering of drink-driving limits, automatic disqualification for drink drivers and stronger penalties for unaccompanied learner drivers.
Ultimately, she says there needs to be “more guards on the roads” and points to a commitment from the former Garda Commissioner Drew Harris in May 2024 to add 150 gardaí to the roads policing unit by the end of this year.
The Oireachtas Transport Committee was told in October 68 gardaí had been allocated to the unit to date, bringing its total number to 633 personnel.
“I am sick and tired of saying it but the fear of getting caught is not happening,” says Gray.
“We are coming into the festive season and Christmas, and we’ll see more guards out but that should be the norm every week, not just holiday weekends. The greatest deterrent is fear of coming across a checkpoint.”
Gray says she feels road safety is not being taken seriously enough and it is “not a priority for the powers that be”.
Minister of State at the Department of Transport Seán Canney insists road safety is a priority for Government and across the political spectrum.
“Within Government, we have to make sure the laws are right and are being enforced, that roads are up to standard and make sure people are educated and those who are on the road have full licences,” he says.
Canney says he has full confidence in the Road Safety Authority (RSA) but that “we could be doing more around messaging”, including the use of ambassadors and influencers to educate younger drivers.
“Garda enforcement is there and gardaí presence is increasing but my attitude is ... enforcement works to a certain point but if people don’t realise that when they’re driving a car they’re driving a machine that can cause an accident and people can lose their lives,” he says.
“It’s sad when you see the number of road deaths we have had this year and we are not finished with the year yet. We have another five weeks to go.”
The RSA was established in 2006 charged with improving safety on Ireland’s roads. The State agency says recent fatal collisions are subject to active investigation by An Garda Siochana and as such was not in a position to comment on them.
Sam Waide, chief executive of the RSA, says it remains “unwavering” in its commitment to preventing collisions and improving road safety.
“We are acutely aware that behind each number is a person – someone who had hopes and dreams, someone who had loved ones,” he says.
“Behind each number is a devastated family trying to piece their lives back together. They are in our thoughts today and every day. Each loss is a devastating reminder of the importance of road safety.”
Brian Caulfield, professor in transportation in the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering at Trinity College Dublin, says researchers in the area “don’t really know” why there has been an increase in road deaths this year.
Prof Caulfield says it is likely “a mixture” of driver behaviour and Garda enforcement but points to a lack of data on road collisions.
The RSA isn’t releasing data to the same level of detail that researchers have access to in other countries – let alone outside the European Union, he says.
“To be able to answer that, we need this data. Other countries would have research institutes in transport that would look at this,” he says.
“Ireland does not have a research institute for transport ... Behaviour is a big impact factor but to try to understand that behaviour a bit more and what impact that behaviour is having, we really need Irish research to show us that.”
He says details about non-fatal incidents are often slow to emerge which is needed so “engineers can design the roads as safely as possible”.
Prof Caulfield says “fully implementing” the speed limit review would also help improve road safety.
The 2023 speed limit review made recommendations to lower limits for road safety, which have led to new rules taking effect this year.
Speed limits on rural roads were reduced from 80km/h to 60km/h in February as part of the Government’s campaign to reduce road deaths to zero by 2050.
Local authorities have been recently asked to review existing speed limits on roads in built-up and urban areas by the Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien.
Councils will “where appropriate” implement lower speed limits, including the introduction of 30km/h limits on roads in cities and towns, the department said last month.
“One thing that would improve the fatality numbers right now would be us fully implementing that speed limit review and lowering speed limits in urban areas,” says Prof Caulfield.
“I think that would go a long way to helping the situation that we currently have.”
