The Road Safety Authority has renewed its New Year road safety appeal for all road users to take extra care on the roads, following the deaths of four women in a fatal crash on Tuesday evening outside Athy, Co. Kildare.
The RSA recently expressed serious concern following a rise in road deaths in 2014, the second consecutive yearly increase in deaths. It has been an equally tragic and poor start for road safety in 2015.
Commenting, Ms Moyagh Murdock, CEO of the RSA, said: “Already we have lost six lives on the country’s roads in the first seven days of 2015. I would appeal to all road users, as a New Year’s resolution, to please make safer choices when using the road. This means wearing a hi-vis jacket and being seen if you are walking, cycling or riding a motorbike. It means slowing down if you are a driver, especially when sharing the road with vulnerable road users. It means everyone wearing a seat belt, front and rear, on every trip, and ensuring children are properly restrained too. It means not driving while distracted by a mobile phone and it means not driving while impaired, whether through drink, drugs or driver fatigue.
“As a community, we simply must stop the carnage we have witnessed on our roads recently. Each one of us has the power to make a difference on the road. We did it before, in 2012 when we saved more lives on the road than ever before. We need to do it again in 2015.”
(See page 50.)