Ireland's road safety record has improved dramatically over the past year and it is now the 6th safest country in the EU, according to a new report published today.
The report from the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) reveals that almost 40,000 people died on road across the EU in 2008.
Last year, 279 people died on Irish roads, compared to 338 deaths in 2007. Since 2001, the number of people who have died on Irish roads has fallen by 32 per cent.
The safety performance of a country is measured by the number of deaths that occur for every million people in the population. In 2008, Ireland recorded 63 road deaths per million population. This represents an improvement of 41 per cent from 107 people killed per million inhabitants in 2001.
In 2007, Ireland was ranked in 9th position in terms of road safety in the ETSC 's annual report.
The Road Safety Authority has previously forecast that if road safety improvement seen in this country since 2005 are maintained or improved upon, Ireland will meet the EU target of halving road deaths by 2010.
Welcoming today's report, Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey said that while he was encouraged by the findings, efforts should continue to reduce the number of road deaths in Ireland.
"2008 was the safest year on record on Irish roads and road deaths today are down 17 on the same date last year," he said.
Chairman of the RSA Gay Byrne said that while progress had been made in addressing drink driving in Ireland, speed remains the biggest contributory factor to deaths and injuries on Irish roads.
"The biggest challenge facing us today is to change this culture of speeding through enforcement and awareness raising educational campaigns,” he said.
Some 39,000 people were killed in road collisions in 2008 in the EU27 countries, according to the ETSC. Although this is 15,400 fewer fatalities than in 2001 it is still far from the 27,000 deaths limit which the EU set for itself in its Road Safety Target for 2010.
The average annual reduction since 2001 has been 4.4 per cent instead of the 7.4 per cent needed to meet the target.
The ETSC said the reduction in road deaths across the EU last year can be partly attributed to reduced traffic volume following the recession and relatively high petrol prices earlier in the year.
Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Latvia achieved the best reductions in road deaths in 2008 but still have some of the highest road death rates in the EU.
