Number of deaths on our roads

terrysgirl33 said:

Pique318, that sounds like a good idea (are there any such courses available?). However, I have had problems with signs, mainly on wet nights in Dublin. In an unfamiliar area, you approach a junction with no signs to tell you if you are at the junction you are taking or not, and with no way of seeing if there are lane markings, or where they are, without a hope of seeing if there's a bus lane or not, until you are at the junction. (in the rain, it's hard to tell road markings from the shiny lines left when the road has been repaired). So you have no hope of knowing where you are going, or where on the road you should be even if you do know, until the last minute. At the same time you have cars driving at you who know the road and are irritated that you are dithering. I find these situations dreadfull... (though they don't happen often)

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Couldn't agree more. I know of a road with locally with a T junction. sign 50 yards from the junction has a 100kpm signi ie you are leaving a 50kph zone and entering a 100kpm zone. Stranger might think it was safe to accelerate. The stop sign 50 yards further on is buried in bushes. A stranger could easily miss it with potentially catastrophic consequences. I did ring the local authority last year about it but nothing happend, except the bushes got bushier.
Why not have a few more overhead signs. recently when exiting Dublin airport I noticed that all the directions were on the actual road. Some help if theres a lot of traffic and you trying to pick out your correct road. Instead of looking at the road ahead you are trying to read the road below.

I thought the whole idea of reporting single vehicle accidents was to let the audience draw their own conclusion to the cause of the accident. Maybe not but in my own case I almost always assume the driver was responsible. Know this isn't always the case but it still doesn't stop me thinking it.

Two things struck me about this latest tragedy:

1. As you say, the car was carrying six, so clearly at least one if not two (or more) were not wearing seatbelts. Judging by the photos, although the front was a mangled mess, like most modern well made cars the passenger compartment was relatively intact (and airbags deployed), even after what was a severe crash. Maybe not one to walk away from, but there shouldn't have been any fatalities if everyone was wearing a seatbelt. It makes me want to scream at all the unbelted children one sees on the roads.

2. More of a guess here, but it looked like bad or non existant signage could have been a contibutory factor. I've lost count of the number of times where signs have been downright misleading or just plain wrong, particularly around roadworks, and thought: what if this were at night? and raining? would I have seen the hazard in time? For some prize examples of this check out the current roadworks on the M50. On one stretch there are temporary lane markings to bring you from one lane to another. The problem is the existing ones haven't been removed, so it's very easy even in good visibility to follow the wrong ones. On another, on rounding a bend you suddenly find yourself in a lane directing you to a different exit from the sign just before the bend. Only in Ireland....

There are less deaths % wise to the amount of cars today than there where 15 years back and futher.There is well over 40% more cars on the Irish roads today than it 1992.

RMCF said:

It seems everyday that we hear about more deaths on our roads.

Although every single case is a tragedy, I have recently been shocked by how many of these deaths only involve one car.

That to me doesn't make it an accident, except in rare occasions. It is usually either bad driving or driving under the influence, which to me doesn't constitute an accident.

I don't mean to sound callous, but when I hear that someone crashed into a tree, or into a ditch or whatever at 4am then for me its driver error, especially when there is no other car involved.

Is it time that the Garda were making public that the drivers involved were over the limit or high? After the news programmes we hear nothing except debates about road quality, standard of driving, driving tests, speed etc. For me if drunk/high people decide to speed around in their cars I'd ratehr they took themselves out and not some innocent driver/family coming the other way.

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I've heard stories that some of the single-vehicle, driver-only accidents are incidents of suicide.

It doesn't sound like a very good method of suicide to me. What if you survive, but are injured to the extent that rules out a second attempt?

RainyDay said:

I've heard stories that some of the single-vehicle, driver-only accidents are incidents of suicide.

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If you are going to commit suicide, why try to take a pile of friends with you?

Quoted post says Single Vehicle Driver Only accidents so no friends in car!

shesells said:

Quoted post says Single Vehicle Driver Only accidents so no friends in car!

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Apologies - will read properly next time.

What a shocking 24hrs we have just had in Ireland, North and South.

So many families wrecked by sudden deaths, coming so close to Xmas.

Very sad day.