Gardaí have issued an appeal for road users to take care after a "tragic bank holiday weekend" on Irish roads.
Assistant Commissioner Paula Hilman told The Irish Times that this weekend had seen “worrying trends” on the roads and the deaths of seven people since the Garda’s weekend safety campaign was launched last Thursday.
A man in his 20s became the latest person to die on the roads this weekend when the car he was driving crashed in the early hours of Monday at on the R512 at Carrigmartin, Ballyneety, Co Limerick. The man was the only occupant of the vehicle and was pronounced dead at the scene.
His death brings to 77 the number of fatalities on the roads of the Republic since the start of the year compared with 44 and 59 at the same time last year and in 2020 respectively.
Ms Hilman extended her sympathies to the families and friends of the victims saying “it certainly is a tragic bank holiday weekend”. As well as the seven fatalities, eight people were also seriously injured in the same crashes.
“Our message today to everybody travelling home [on Monday] is please be careful, slow down and pay attention on the roads,” she said. “Just one second of inattention can have devastating consequences and we know that afternoon periods are high-risk periods for serious and fatal road traffic collisions.”
The spike in deaths this weekend and the rising road fatality numbers to date this year was “undoubtedly a worrying” trend, Ms Hilman added.
“Every [road death] number we talk about; that’s a person. It’s somebody’s loved one, it’s an empty seat at the table and we should never lose sight of that.”
She said that drink-driving has begun to increase in the State after declining during the pandemic. Up to Monday morning, just over 110 people had been arrested for driving under the influence of drink or drugs across the country since the start of the weekend.
“Last year, for the first time ever, [we recorded] an increase in drug-driving and we had more detections for drug-driving than drink-driving,” Ms Hilman said.
