EDITORIAL: There is a lot of work to be done in Tipperary to reduce road fatalities in 2024

It is only the start of 2024 and we are continuing to see a high number of road deaths across the country. 

Recently, we published a story from the Road Safety Authority about fatalities on Irish roads.

There were 184 nationwide and 16 in Tipperary, the highest in Ireland. The statistics are provisional because, as the report says, there are a small number of collisions where information is not yet available.

But one can imagine the report’s authors wondering if more people would die before the publication of their report.

Provisional, in this sense, takes on a new meaning.

The trends are rising, but causes of collisions are nothing new.

Dangerous roads, driver error, weather, drink and drug driving, speed and mobile phones.

Statistics provided at the Tipperary Joint Policing Committees show that while some risky behaviours like speeding are reducing, they were too high to begin with.

But it’s not just drivers.

This week, we published a story about roads dubbed “accidents waiting to happen” by councillors in Nenagh.

Tipperary County Council say that while they acknowledge that these roads are dangerous, Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) will prioritise them until they have an “accident history”.

This, they say, is so that resources are used efficiently, and while they don’t agree, they do understand. But without intervention on these roads, people may die, and councillors are understandably concerned.

The Chief Superintendent for the Tipperary-Clare policing area, Colm O’Sullivan, said last year that driving is one of the most dangerous things a person does in a day.

Everyone expects they will be going home when they hop in their car.

But everyone shares the same roads, the good and the bad, the lucky and unlucky, safe and not safe.

Why leave it to chance?