He's between 25 and 34 years of age. He crashed into the ditch on a straight dry road in daylight in Co Longford in July at 5 p.m. No other car was involved.
Statistics throw up some strange profiles when cobbled together; some justified, others not. Yet one of the most significant features of the latest accident statistics from the National Roads Authority is that the single most important contributory factor to road incidents in Ireland is the driver.
Incidentally, the use of the word accident in the title of the report could be judged a misnomer given that it would seem in the vast majority of these collisions some element of blame is attributable.
While improved roads, crash barriers on motorways, better road signs, and more free-flowing junctions, limit the damage done by an errant driver, the fact remains that better training is needed if we are to reduce the number of fatal and serious crashes.
Apart from the 89 per cent of crashes attributed to driver error, the next most listed factor, pedestrian error, accounted for less than 10 per cent and, more significantly, road factors only accounted for 2.5 per cent, while vehicle and environmental factors such as weather conditions were only 0.3 and 1.4 per cent respectively. Those who argue for better crash barriers on the motorway may take some succour from the figures that show most two-car collisions are caused by one of the cars "went on the wrong side of the road" in 39 per cent of incidents listed by gardaí.
Yet the most startling conclusion from these statistics must be that they point the finger at speed and drink driving being two highly influential factors in road deaths and injuries.
Take darkness for example.
While, as expected the majority of pedestrians are killed or injured in poorly-lit or unlit conditions, for 55.2 per cent of collisions the incident occurred in good visibility. What's more, 66.7 per cent of collisions resulting in a fatality or injury occur in dry weather, with 55.8 per cent on a dry road and 56.3 per cent on a straight piece of road.
In fact rain was only a factor in 25.8 per cent of such crashes, and fog/mist only 1.6 per cent. For all our calls for a better road network, it would appear that driver behaviour even the circumstances are optimum certainly contributes to the carnage on our roads.
Longford takes the infamous title of worst county for crashes per 1,000 registered vehicles, and also for the number of accidents per 1,000 of population, previously held by Cavan and Leitrim. This is perhaps a comment on the state of the roads in these counties, which regularly swap places on this deadly league table.
The latest statistics on road crashes reveal that single vehicle accidents remain the most common type of collision on our roads. These collisions, involving no other vehicle, account for 30 per cent of all fatal crashes.
These are followed by head-on collisions, which account for a quarter of all fatal crashes and a fifth of all crashes that result in injury. The figures show these two types of collision to be more likely to result in a fatality than others.
The worst month for fatalities last year was July, with May being the safest. The figures also show that between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. is the most dangerous time on the roads, though 5 p.m. and 12 p.m. are statistically the worst single hours for crashes. The largest percentage of casualties and fatalities were between 5 and 6 p.m.
With the cost of each fatality estimated by the report at €1,357,489, injury costs at between €16,142 and €168,461, and even material damage set at €1,578, the price of driver-training programmes pales into insignificance.
At this rate, in cold cash terms the fall in fatalities last year is worth €47.5 million from 35 lives saved. Of course it's worth far more in terms of human life.
