Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 9 Oct 2001

Vol. 541 No. 4

Written Answers. - Traffic Accidents.

Jack Wall

Question:

423 Mr. Wall asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of traffic accidents in each of the past five years in which there were fatalities; the investigations which have been initiated into the accidents; the results in this regard; the proposals there are to alleviate the causes of these accidents; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23146/01]

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Mr. O'Donoghue)

Detailed statistics in relation to the number of fatal and serious injury accidents are provided by the National Roads Authority, the most recent report from which is in respect of 1999. The report for 2000 is not yet published. According to the National Roads Authority report Road Accident Facts, Ireland 1999, the number of fatal accidents for the past five years is set out in the following tabular statement:

	1995	1996	1997	199	1999	2000
No. of Fatal Accidents	405	415	424	408	374	362*

*Provisional figure.

All fatal road traffic accidents are investigated by the Garda. A file is prepared and sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions for directions as to the appropriate charges, if any, in each case where there is a surviving driver. In relation to alleviating the causes of fatal accidents, I refer the Deputy to my reply to Parliamentary Question No. 117 of 3 October 2001 concerning the response to road deaths by all the agencies involved in road safety.

I refer to the Government's National Strategy on Road Safety, 1998-2002, which contains a package of measures encompassing new legislation, enhanced enforcement, road improvement works and improvements to the driver education system. In July 2001 the inter-agency high level group on road safety published the third progress report on the implementation of the national strategy. This report highlights the action items on improving road safety which have been implemented or are in the process of implementation, including those action items which have to be implemented by the end of 2002.