Road safety campaigners are taking some satisfaction in a significant drop in road death numbers during 2007. Up until yesterday evening, 336 people had been killed on the roads this year, a drop of almost 9 per cent on 2006.
The Road Safety Authority (RSA) says the reduction is a result of measures put in place in the last two years and greater compliance. Its chief executive Noel Brett say the figures show the effectiveness of the first full year of random breathtesting which was introduced in July 2006, stricter drink-driving penalties, greater enforcement by the Garda Traffic Corps and the rolling out of 31 new penalty point offences.
"I'm unhappy that 336 families are without somebody, but I'm pleased we have managed to get a reduction in the last two years and we are sustaining that reduction. The reason for the drop is not just enforcement, but driver behaviour. We have seen huge changes in terms of compliance. The biggest risk now is complacency."
It is now likely that the final figure will be one of the lowest since records began in 1961, and the lowest in absolute terms, given the number of vehicles on the road and the population.
It could even be lower than the 335 figure recorded in 2003 which saw a dramatic fall in road deaths following the introduction of penalty points. Some of the fatalities this year are likely to be recorded as something other than road deaths, including the two eastern European men who drove off a pier in Co Galway earlier this month.
Mr Brett said the RSA is determined to reach the new road safety strategy target of reducing road deaths to around 250 by 2012. He also said that 10,000 learner drivers are being tested weekly at present, and the Government is on course to fulfil its March target of testing all of the the 122,600 drivers who were on the waiting list when the controversial announcement was made in October that second provisional drivers would no longer be able to drive on their own.
The Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey is likely to come under pressure to resign if the backlog of the 120,000 second provisional licence holders waiting to sit their tests in the immediate aftermath of that announcement is not cleared by June 30th.
AA public affairs manager Conor Faughnan said he is optimistic, given the changes planned for next year, that road deaths will drop below 300 for the first time in 2008.
"This year will go down as a very good one relative to the historic number of deaths on Irish roads and relative to our European peers," he said.
"There is reasons to be optimistic about 2008. We are going to see a continuing strengthening of the traffic corps, important reforms in driver training and the possibility of lower drink-driving limits."
Meanwhile, a 40-year-old man died after being struck by a van on Saturday evening.
The man was walking along Blackwood Lane, Portmarnock, north Dublin at 7.15pm when the incident happened.
He was treated by paramedics at the scene and rushed to Beaumont Hospital where he later died. The driver of the van was not injured.
