With another eight young lives claimed by roads in the Republic so far this week, the same question is on everyone's lips. What can be done to stop the carnage that left 474 people dead last year, and to defy the grim forecast that this year's total fatalities could exceed even that.
So far this year, 300 people have died on the roads. The Garda National Traffic Policy Bureau has analysed the causes of these, excluding this week's deaths which are still being investigated.
Speed was the cause of deaths in 129 cases while alcohol contributed to another 57 deaths.
The remainder were caused by a variety of factors including dangerous and/or careless driving; driver negligence, cyclist negligence, pedestrian inattention, hit and runs and weather conditions.
Supt Vincent Maguire, of the NTPB, has definite views on how to cut the human cost of what's been termed the culture of complacency among Irish drivers - evident in a survey published this week by PMPA in which more than 50 per cent of drivers admitted to speeding and other illegal driving practices, with males under 30 the worst offenders.
He believes two measures could significantly reduce road deaths - the introduction of a system of penalty points for road traffic offences and on-the-spot fines for failure to wear seat belts. Just 53 per cent of drivers wear front seat belts and "a lot less" wear rear belts.
"The big killers are speeding, pedestrian inattention and drink," Supt Maguire said. Speeding was primarily "a young person's problem" and due to inexperience. Rather than take unqualified young drivers off the road completely, he would prefer to focus on education and ending the "macho" culture surrounding speeding.
When speeding becomes as socially unacceptable as drink driving, there should be a marked fall in road deaths, he said. Last month the government committed itself, in the first national road safety strategy, to reducing deaths and serious injuries from RTAs by at least 20 per cent within five years.
Key measures include a penalty points system.
Other measures include more speed cameras and a written test for driving licence applicants.
Dr David Lillis, president of the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association, believes many RTAs result from there being more than 330,000 unqualified drivers, particularly younger unqualified drivers, on the roads.
A recent survey of road accident statistics at University College Hospital, Galway, found that over 40 per cent of those involved are aged between 17 and 26 years.
Dr Lillis advocates a five-point strategy to reduce road carnage.
Unqualified drivers must be accompanied by qualified drivers until they pass their driving test; newly-qualified drivers should be restricted to driving up to a certain speed for a specified period after qualification; written tests should accompany the practical driving test and the testing process should be speeded up; road quality must be improved and a public education campaign introduced.
The Driving Instructor Register of Ireland, which is concerned with the standard of training for drivers, also yesterday called for a review of the driving test and of how provisional driving licences are allocated, noting that 24 per cent of drivers are currently on provisional licences only.