Ireland's road-safety record is bad, but there are worse places to drive. Sarah Marriott assesses the risks on the roads abroad
The word "carnage" rolls off the tongues of newsreaders most bank-holiday weekends as they report fatalities on our roads. Now, with the deaths in Portugal last week of two young women from Co Cork, attention is turning to road safety abroad.
Terrorism feels like a greater threat to life than merely driving or taking a plane, train or boat, but every year tourists are killed on holiday, and statistics show that driving is a far greater risk to your health than terrorist groups.
Erasmus students Aisling O'Loughlin and Paula O'Neill were killed in one of Ireland's most popular holiday destinations and the country with the highest road accident fatality rate in the EU. According to the OECD, 1,671 people died on Portuguese roads in 2001, which it estimates is just over 16 per 100,000 of the population.
Along with speeding and drink-driving, Portugal's National Plan for Prevention of Road Accidents, published earlier this year, identifies the causes as a lack of warnings about roadworks, inadequate enforcement of the law and insufficient driver education, both in schools and in the general population.
In a coincidence, on the day the Irishwomen were killed, when the car they were travelling in was hit by a train, a road-safety campaign warning of the dangers of level crossings began on Portuguese television and radio. Level crossings in built-up areas usually have barriers or gates; in more remote areas, such as the part of the southern Algarve where the Cork students and their German teacher were travelling, they have traffic lights.
Compare Portuguese figures with those in Ireland. In 2001 (the latest year for which comprehensive OECD figures are available) 411 people were killed in traffic accidents here, which works out as 10.7 deaths per 100,000 of the population. In the same year 6,909 people were injured, compared with more than 42,000 in Portugal, which has a population of 10 million. Last year 379 people died in road accidents in the Republic; by yesterday morning 162 people had been killed in 144 collisions.
In the EU, more than 40,000 people die and more than 1.7 million are injured in road accidents each year, costing an estimated €160 billion, according to the Community Database on Accidents on the Roads in Europe. So how safe are the countries we visit on holiday? Among our European neighbours, the highest road-accident death toll in 2001 was recorded in France, where more than 8,000 people died. Other high-risk countries are Germany, where almost 7,000 died in 2001, and Italy, where almost 6,500 people died in 2000. The fewest fatalities in 2001 were, predictably, recorded in countries with small populations: the Republic of Ireland, Luxembourg, Finland and Denmark.
Looking at the fatality rate per 100,000 of the population changes this league table significantly. Countries with more than 13 deaths per 100,000 people in 2001 are Portugal, Spain, Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Poland. The UK and the Netherlands seem to be the safest countries in which to drive, with just over six deaths per 100,000 in 2001. Rates vary considerably: France and Belgium had twice as many deaths per 100,000 people in the first half of last year as the UK and the Netherlands.
And the situation in some countries is not improving. Deaths fell in the first half of last year in New Zealand, Spain, Austria, Slovakia, Japan and Denmark but rose in Hungary, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Norway, Germany and Australia.
Cutting road deaths and injuries is the focus of campaigns in most developed countries. In France, where the majority of accidents are caused by speed, alcohol, tiredness or the use of mobile phones while driving, a hard-hitting campaign shows how bodies are mutilated in a collision. Some 60 per cent of deaths in the 20 to 24 age group take place on French roads, although, according to Valerie Odile of the French tourism office in Dublin, France seems to have more speed and police checks than the Republic.
Speeding and drink-driving cause most accidents in Spain, but choosing when to travel could save your life. The most dangerous times to drive are peak holiday periods, such as August 1st, when more than 10 million people are on the move, heading mainly for the coast.
Peak holiday times are also a more dangerous period to drive in Germany, but dates vary from region to region, says Doerte Goldammer of the German-Irish Chamber of Industry and Commerce. German roads are generally well maintained, a penalty-point system is in place and the fatality rate is under nine per 100,000 people. The days of no speed limits on dual carriageways are also coming to an end, with a limit of 130kph being introduced.
People who drive too slowly cause accidents in Italy, according to Dr Lepore of the Italian embassy in Dublin. "Other drivers take risks and overtake because they are impatient," he says. The worst times on the roads are Saturday nights all year and Sunday nights during the summer; the day to avoid driving is August 15th, when the exodus from the cities to the coast and countryside begins.
Europe isn't the only holiday destination facing this problem. Thailand may well have the world's highest road death rate: during the seven-day New Year festival in April, 606 people died and more than 41,000 were injured despite an intensive safety campaign and free food and drink at rest stops.
In Australia, police enforcement and safety campaigns have brought the fatality rate down to 8.8 deaths per 100,000 of the population. Speeding is a major problem, however: some 60 per cent of drivers admit to speeding, and 20 per cent of drivers have been booked for speeding over the past two years. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau reports, however, that death rates are no higher during Christmas and New Year holidays and that the main causes of crashes remain the same all year: excessive speed, drink-driving and fatigue.
The fatality rate would be halved if everyone wore seat belts, according to the OECD. The safest countries are those where road safety laws are strictly enforced and a large proportion of people regularly wear seat belts, it reports. The €300,000 collected in seat-belt fines over the May bank-holiday weekend shows that belting up, or not, is cause for concern in the Republic.
The situation is more serious in the US, where seat-belt wearing has become a civil-liberties issue. One state, New Hampshire, has no belt legislation at all. The US has the lowest level of seat-belt wearing in the developed world - only 75 per cent of drivers belt up - and almost 15 people were killed in accidents per 100,000 of the population in 2001.
Although speeding and alcohol continue to be the main causes of road deaths in OECD countries, driving under the influence of illegal drugs is an increasing problem.
In the UK in the first half of last year, 18 per cent of those killed in road accidents had one or more illegal drugs in their systems. In Australia, 29 per cent of people in serious accidents tested positive for illegal drugs (compared with 22 per cent who were over the legal alcohol limit). In the Netherlands, driving while under the combined influence of alcohol and drugs, including prescription drugs, is a growing issue.
Not surprisingly, riding a motorbike is more risky than driving a car, but the desire for fast, powerful bikes is not restricted to the young and foolish. Britain and France have seen a rapid rise in the number of deaths among men aged 25 to 64 on motorbikes, and the biggest rise in road accident fatalities in the US is among middle-aged men riding large, powerful motorbikes.
Last week's accident in Portugal - as well as the crash in May at a level crossing in Hungary in which 33 German tourists died - reinforces the dangers of road travel. Train travel seems to be much safer. In the majority of cases, train passengers are uninjured in railway accidents.
Within the EU, Germanyhas the worst record for accidents involving railways. There were 225 deaths in 2000, but of these only 38 were train passengers. France is next: of the 122 people who died in accidents involving railways, only 15 were actually travelling by train.
Flying seems dangerous, but it can be almost as safe as riding the rails and is far safer than getting behind the wheel. In the EU, 92 train passengers died in 2000, compared with 114 airline passengers.
Despite the Cabin Fever debacle, getting about by boat is also safer than driving; the number of lives lost at sea has almost halved since 1998. According to Lloyd's Register of Shipping, 566 people died at sea in 1998 and 306 in 2001, most on general cargo ships rather than on passenger ferries.
As holiday tragedies hit the headlines each summer, we sympathise with suffering families and vow to drive more carefully. But sometimes accidents happen because we are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
