The numbers killed on Irish roads North and South are falling, figures released yesterday show.
Road deaths in the Republic have dropped by 30 per cent over the past decade, according to the Road Safety Authority (RSA). It said 472 people died on the roads in 1997, compared with 336 in 2007.
Deaths on Northern Ireland's roads are also falling. Some 112 people were killed on the North's roads in 2007 compared with 126 in 2006 and 135 in 2005.
Noel Brett, chief executive of the RSA, said the State's roads were getting safer.
"We have seen deaths drop by almost a third in the last 10 years despite the fact that there has been a 40 per cent increase in the number of drivers and a 70 per cent increase in the number of vehicles on our roads," he said.
"While one death on our roads is one too many, 2007 was one of the safest years on Irish roads in over 40 years. Only 1961 and 2003 were safer when a total of 335 road deaths were recorded in both years."
Some 29 fewer people were killed on Irish roads in 2007 compared with 2006 when 365 people lost their lives, according to the RSA.
Those killed on the roads last year included 138 drivers, 82 pedestrians, 70 passengers, 31 motorcyclists and 13 cyclists. The other two have not been categorised.
Mr Brett said a number of factors had contributed to the reduction in road deaths last year. "The most important was that road users changed their behaviour and this has resulted in lives being saved and injuries prevented," he said.
Other significant factors, he added, included the full-year effect of random breath testing, the introduction of tougher new penalties for drink driving offences last March and the addition of 240 more gardaí to the Traffic Corps.
Meanwhile, the first person to die on the roads in the North this year was killed near Cushendall, Co Antrim, yesterday afternoon.
A man, said by the PSNI to be in his late 20s, died after his people carrier plunged 50m down a steep embankment after it left the road. He was alone in the car and it is understood no other vehicle was involved.
As 2007 came to a close the deaths of a brother and sister in the same collision brought the road fatalities total in the North to 112. The victims, Thomas Maughan (16) and his sister Siobhán (22), died in a collision on the outskirts of Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh. They were travelling in one of two cars that collided on the Irvinestown Road shortly after 9.30am. The driver of the second car was taken to hospital.
It is understood they had returned from England for their grandmother's funeral and were killed as they made the journey to Irvinestown for the funeral Mass.