60 lives lost on Kerry’s roads in just five years
COUNCIL PUBLISHES FIVE-YEAR SAFETY CAMPAIGN
KERRY County Council has published a five-year road safety plan for the county.
The plan, which aims to develop a co-ordinated approach to the issue of road safety, was adopted by councillors late last year and covers the period up to 2020.
In the decade between 2006 and 2015, a total of 119 people lost their lives on Kerry’s roads and the Plan aims to significantly reduce serious injury and fatality on the roads of Kerry.
It sets out four main objectives in the areas of education, engineering, enforcement and evaluation.
The report contains a detailed breakdown of road fatalities; injuries and crashes in the county between 2010 and 2015.
In that period 60 people lost their lives on Kerry’s roads. Of these 35 were car drivers; ten were pedestrians; eight were motorcyclists and six were cyclists.
The worst single year was 2014 when there were 14 road fatalities in Kerry. The in-depth report delves further into the statistics for 2014, revealing there were a total of 1,154 collisions in Kerry in that year.
While the majority (947) resulted in only material damage to the vehicles involved, 180 of the accidents resulted in minor injuries while 14 of them resulted in the victims suffering serious, life changing injuries.
In 2014, 62 per cent of all fatal road accidents in Kerry involved single vehicle collisions.
Also that year 44 pedestrians were hit by cars or other vehicles with three losing their lives.
The plan was launched by outgoing Mayor of Kerry Cllr Michael O’Shea who said the success of the plan depends on people working together.
“Through working together, and sharing our knowledge, expertise and experience, we aim to develop a safer environment for all road users. This will be achieved through educating drivers and those using our roads, improving road standards, and enforcing legislation,” he said.
Kerry Garda Chief Superintendent Tom Myers said the force is didicated to “ensuring the people of Kerry and the many visitors to the county engage in safe driving practices.”
“A key priority is the enforcement of road traffic legislation. We will use targeted enforcement based on intelligence and analysis, as well as education and prevention programmes to reduce serious injuries and fatalities,” said Chief Supt Myers.