Road crash report is out

The National Roads Authority (NRA) has published its long-awaited analysis of road accidents in 2003 amid calls for more information on crashes involving provisional drivers and the incidents of drink and drug-fuelled driver deaths.

The Road Collision Facts report was published on the NRA's website on Friday, almost six months later than usual. The NRA, which changed the document title from Road Accident Facts, has blamed the delay on gardai who it says were slow in providing accident information in 2003.

The report shows that 301 collisions caused 335 deaths in 2003 at a cost of €1.104 billion, up from €728 million in 2002. Motorcyclists were the most vulnerable road users, accounting for 55 deaths, an increase of 11 on 2002.

Other main groups saw significant reductions during the first full year of the penalty points sytem for speeding. Pedestrian fatalities fell by 22 to 64, car user fatalities from 200 to 172, while the number of cyclists killed fell from 18 to 11 in 2003.

Overall, fatalities fell by 41 between 2002 and 2003. Points for speeding came in late 2002, and during 2003 the system was extended to seat-belt and insurance offences.

Only one vehicle was involved in 33 per cent of all fatal collisions, an increase of 3 per cent on 2002. Head-on collisions accounted for 32 per cent of fatal crashes, while collisions where pedestrians died accounted for 21 per cent of all fatal crashes.

Driver error remains the largest contributary factor in crashes, accounting for 86 per cent as listed by gardai. The next most-common factor was pedestrian error (10 per cent), followed by road factors (2.8 per cent). In two-vehicle fatal crashes, two factors - "went on the wrong side of the road" and "improper overtaking" - accounted for 41 per cent of the total.

May was the worst month in 2003 with 38 dying in 32 collisions, while January and September were safest. Worst days were Saturday and Sunday, accounting for 129 deaths, or 39 per cent of the total. Some 27 per cent of fatal crashes occurred between 9pm and 3am.

Cavan had the highest number of collisions per 1,000 population while Louth had the highest rate per 1,000 registered vehicles.

Fine Gael's transport spokeswoman Olivia Mitchell said the delay in publishing the report was "ridiculous" and its findings "meaningless" without more consistent and detailed information. "It's not properly computerised," she said. "Whether that's manpower or failure of a computer system I don't know."

She said she was interested to find out how many accidents involved provisional drivers, or if drink or drugs were involved. "This sort of information is not collected."

Labour's transport spokeswoman, Róisín Shorthall, said the delay showed "the lack of priority" the Government is giving to road safety. It's not good enough that we have to wait for 18 months for analysis of accidents."

Senator Tom Morrissey of the Progressive Democrats said it was the Garda and the NRA should see to it that the figures were available at the earliest possible opportunity.

Brian Farrell of the National Safety Council said the report was useful despite being late. "We base our activities on analysis of a five-year period. Various factors could arise in one year that could skew the statistics."

He agreed that it would be useful to have more information on provisional drivers and driver fatigue - "on drink and drugs information, we're doing better with information from coroners' reports."