Donegal Road Safety Facts

In 2009, 15 people were killed on Donegal roads including 2 members of the Garda Siochana. Garda Robbie McCallion (29) died in April after he was struck by a stolen car in Letterkenny and Garda Gary McLoughlin (24), who was stationed in Buncrana, was killed when a car crashed into his parked patrol car. *Although the number of road deaths in Donegal has reduced over the years, the number of 'reported road collisions' has not dropped and remains at around 1,300 since 2005. In 2007 22 people lost their life on Donegal roads, 2 of which were killed in Inishowen. In 2008 17 were killed on Donegal roads of which 6 were in Inishowen. 202 people have lost their lives on Donegal roads from 1998-2006. CAWT (Cooperation And Working Together): Steering to Safety Project www.cawt.com Their findings of their report research undertaken on border road safety. The most common contributory factor in all fatal collisions across the four years 2001 to 2004 in the republic's border counties and Meath was the consumption of alcohol (37.4%) followed by excessive speed (27.3%) and inattention (18.8%). Alcohol was the main contributory factor in single-vehicle collisions (57.3%) and those collisions involving a pedestrian (42.9%). Fatal single vehicle collision problem involves 20-24 year old male drivers. These are driver only collisions. Donegal has the highest number of collisions in the border counties from 1999 to 2003 and the largest proportion of single-vehicle collisions in the border counties from 1996 to 2003. Donegal has the largest proportion of fatal (31.3%) and serious (34.7%) collisions from 1999 to 2003. Single-vehicle collisions were the most common type of fatal collision in Donegal (49.3%) Donegal has the highest proportion of fatal single-vehicle collisions (30.8%) of the border counties over the four-year 2001 to 2004. The early hours of Saturday and Sunday accounted for most fatal single-vehicle collisions (42.8%) In Ireland some 84% of the drivers involved in a fatal collision were male with more than half aged between 15 to 34 years. The dominant gender in all single-vehicle collisions was male (77.3%) The peak period for collisions are between the hours of 9pm and 4am - the hours which may be associated with drinking and driving. 10th August 2007 RSA reports that Donegal has the highest number of road deaths per head of population between 2001 and 2005 inclusive. The county was also high up on the list for injuries. 113 people lost their lives on Donegal's roads between 2001 and 2005 inclusive. Through that period the county had the worst road record in the country behind the major population areas of Dublin and Cork.The county ranked 4th in the list of statistics for people injured in road collisions over the same period of time coming behind Dublin, Limerick and Galway. A total of 2,076 people were injured in road collisions in the county between 2001 and 2005. The figure for 2005 alone shows that between Letterkenny, Buncrana, Ballyshannon and Bundoran there were a total of 2 fatalities and 15 injuries due to road collisions, indicating that most accidents occurred outside urban areas.