A teenager yesterday became the 200th person to die on the State's roads this year. Some 182 had died at the same calendar point last year.
The latest victim, who has not been named, was killed in Co Tipperary after the black Opel Astra he was driving crashed into a wall at Lanespark, Ballynonty, near Thurles, just before 6am. No other vehicle was involved. His body was brought to Waterford Regional Hospital, where a postmortem was being carried out yesterday. Gardaí appealed for witnesses to contact Thurles Garda station at 0504-25100.
According to Garda statistics, the death toll for the year so far is the highest January-to-June figure since 2000.
In a total of 173 crashes, 99 drivers have died, along with 47 passengers, 36 pedestrians, 15 motorcyclists and three cyclists. Three of every four victims were men.
Fine Gael road safety spokesman Shane McEntee TD said yesterday "a gruesome benchmark" had been reached. "This has been a truly tragic week on the roads, with the death of a nine-month-old baby in an accident in Co Cork, the youngest road traffic victim of the year."
Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral yesterday of baby Harvey Desmond Burns, from Macroom, who died on Thursday. Five others were injured including his mother, Debra, who was too ill to attend her son's funeral at St Colman's Church. She remains in Cork University Hospital.
Chief executive of the Road Safety Authority (RSA) Noel Brett said road fatality trends for this year were "exactly the same" as last year, with young men between the ages of 17 and 25 most likely to be killed, typically early on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday morning.
"What the RSA is trying to do is assemble the building blocks. This is not going to be a quick fix, it's going to be a long haul," he said. The organisation is concentrating on young and inexperienced male drivers, elderly pedestrians and members of ethnic minorities - all "high-risk" categories.
Despite the high death toll, Mr Brett pointed to several indications of progress in legislation and enforcement, which he said would have a clearly discernible effect later this year and next. Meanwhile, the number of arrests for drink-driving so far this year has risen by 20 per cent compared to last year.
The Road Traffic Bill, which is expected to pass through the Dáil before the summer recess, would be "the most significant piece of road safety legislation we have ever had in the history of the State", Mr Brett said.
The Bill will provide for mandatory breath-testing, a ban on the use of hand-held mobile phones, the outsourcing of speed cameras to private contractors and the introduction of "administrative fines".
These latter will mean that drivers caught drink-driving will have the option of paying an on-the-spot fine and surrendering their licence instead of going to court and facing a larger fine and a longer ban. It is hoped that this will free Garda resources.
When a new graduated "learner permit" is introduced under the terms of the Act to replace the current provisional licence, it is understood the RSA will examine a number of new conditions that holders will have to observe. Among the conditions introduced in other countries are a night-time curfew, a ban on holders carrying passengers under 21 years of age and a ban on driving certain categories of powerful car.
Labour Party transport spokeswoman Róisín Shortall this week proposed a number of amendments to the legislation, including a reduction in the blood alcohol limit from 80mg to 50mg, banning tinted windows in the front seats of all vehicles, and obliging anyone convicted of a serious driving offence to resit their driving test.