The decline came despite Garda Roads Policing Unit (RPU) personnel numbers remaining at near record lows.
Sixty people have died on Irish roads so far this year. That contrasts to 68 who lost their lives in traffic tragedies by the same point last year.
The deaths this year have included 24 drivers, 15 pedestrians, six passengers, 10 motorcyclists, four pedal cyclists and one pillion passenger.
Almost one in three deaths this year have involved motorcyclists or pedal cyclists.
Road safety campaigner group Parc conducted an analysis of crashes, which revealed road deaths were spread across 20 counties – three counties more than on March 1. Six counties – Clare, Kildare, Longford, Louth, Monaghan and Wicklow – have not recorded a road death so far this year.
A total of 184 people died on Irish roads in 2023, the highest death toll for over a decade.
Last year, a total of 174 people died in traffic tragedies. That represented a 4pc decline.
Road safety chiefs have ordered studies into the varying nature of fatal crash statistics to better understand the reasons for surges and declines in fatalities.
There have also been inexplicable regional variations in fatal collisions.
Ireland’s most populous county, Dublin, has recorded six road deaths so far this year. However, Galway and Donegal have also both recorded six traffic fatalities each this year despite having only a fraction of Dublin’s population and traffic volumes.
There have been seven fatalities this year in Mayo.
Parc founder Susan Gray said their study revealed that 18 of the 60 people who died on Irish roads so far this year were aged 30 years or younger.
She said the cornerstone of road safety was the strict enforcement of safety regulations and proper resourcing of the gardaí.
“There is an undeniable link between Road Policing Unit numbers, enforcement of road safety regulations and the safety of our roads,” she said.
She said the priority for the Government should be the provision of maximum resources for the gardaí.
Ms Gray said RPUs deserved enormous credit for the work they had achieved with depleted resources. RPU personnel numbers are 40pc down on 2009 levels.
“We desperately need to get the road safety message across and ensure that road safety regulations are rigorously enforced,” she said.
“But this includes all the stakeholders from the Government to state agencies and from prioritising recruitment to the gardaí to closing loopholes in the law and devoting the resources to road safety to reduce the number of fatalities.”
August was the deadliest month on Irish roads in 2023, but was one of the safest last year.
Ireland had 138 road deaths in 2018 – 29pc below last year’s number.
Today’s News in 90 Seconds – May 13th
Since 2018, road deaths have steadily climbed: 2019 (140), 2020 (146), 2021 (130/Covid lockdowns), 2022 (155) and 2023 (184).
Almost half the road deaths over the past 18 months have involved vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists, bikers and e-scooter riders.
An RSA submission to the Government last year noted that, in the space of five years, deaths among young people aged between 16 and 25 almost doubled.
Overall, road users aged 16 to 25 represented the largest proportions of fatalities (26pc) and serious injuries (22pc) over the past year.
The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI) warned that frontline resources were a major issue for the force as it responded to multiple operational challenges.
Gardaí insisted that 150 extra personnel would be deployed to RPU work nationwide by the end of this year.
“Gardaí do not comment on current or future deployment of resources for operational reasons,” a spokesperson said.
“An Garda Síochána (AGS) is committed to its aim to transfer 150 personnel into Roads Policing by the end of 2025. (We) commenced this allocation with the transfer of 23 garda members to RPUs during the second half of 2024.
“Competitions took place in three garda regions and panels are now in place across all four garda regions. Transfers from those panels will take place throughout 2025. Internal garda competitions are conducted by garda HR in accordance with agreements with the Garda Staff Associations,” the spokesperson added.
“Managing deployment of resources in a large national organisation such as AGS with over 560 garda stations throughout the country, and competing priorities such as roads policing, economic crime, drugs and organised crime, cyber crime and maintaining frontline policing is a complex process.”
In 2014 there were 192 road deaths when there were 742 assigned RPU members. In 2017 there were 154 deaths when there were 623 assigned RPU members.
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