FEBRUARY HAS seen the lowest number of road deaths for any month since records began 50 years ago.
A total of 16 people lost their lives on the State’s roads during the month, compared with 32 in February last year, 25 during February 2007 and 31 in 2006.
Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey said each of the 16 road deaths was “tragic and avoidable”.
“We cannot become complacent about the fight to keep our roads safe, and I want to see the downward trend in road deaths continue this month.”
March has already seen seven people killed on the roads, including a 29-year-old man who died in a two-car collision on the N11 near Gorey, Co Wexford, shortly after 6am yesterday.
The man, who was driving one of the cars, was taken to Wexford General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The woman driver of the other car was taken to St Vincent’s hospital in Dublin, where she was treated for non-life threatening injuries. The drivers were the sole occupants of the cars.
Mr Dempsey said he was making a special plea to all drivers on the roads this weekend to be particularly vigilant.
Ireland’s roads were becoming safer, “but we cannot let up in our fight to reduce deaths and serious injuries on our roads”.
Research published by the Road Safety Authority last year showed that 46 per cent of road deaths occurred at the weekends.
Sunday was statistically the most dangerous day of the week, while the hour between 9pm and 10pm was shown to be the most dangerous period of the day, with 13 per cent of road deaths occurring during that time.
Up to yesterday 61 people had lost their lives on the State’s roads this year, a reduction of 21 on the same period last year.
