RSA reports number of deaths on Irish roads increased by 6% in 2020

DUBLIN: Road Safety Authority figures show that the number of people who died in road accidents in Ireland increased by 6% in 2020. A total of 149 people died on Irish roads last year and 140 died in 2019. It also says 2018 was the safest year on Irish roads.

More than half of all deaths in 2020 occurred on Monday, Wednesday or Saturday (53%).

The figures were published by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) following an analysis of provisional fatal collision reports by An Garda Síochána.

Last year, 149 people had died as a result of 138 fatal crashes. And in 2019, 140 deaths were due to fatal crashes.

However, RSA figures show that the number of serious or minor injuries decreased by 25% last year. It dropped from 5,527 in 2019 to 4,120 in 2020.

Casualty figures for 2020 show that the number of drivers killed is 11 or 16% lower than in 2019. At the same time, statistics show a 5 or 16% increase in pedestrian deaths and an 11% increase in passenger deaths.

Cork and Dublin had the highest number of fatalities, 25 and 20 respectively.

The most dangerous day of the week in terms of road deaths in 2019 was Saturday (29), followed by Monday (25) and Wednesday (25).