By Vivienne Clarke
The chief executive of the Road Safety Authority (RSA), Moyagh Murdock has called on motorists to be vigilant and to slow down after a “devastating” weekend on the roads when seven people died.
Ms Murdock told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that Ireland has a disproportionate level of collisions and that people needed to slow down.
In the last three to four years the number of road deaths had been falling, she said and the RSA had hoped the level of fatalities would reduce to 10 a month, but in February there were 29 road deaths.
“It’s a long time since we had a weekend like this,” she said of the seven road deaths.
A 16-year-old girl died in an accident near Oughterard in Co Galway when the car, in which she was a passenger, struck a wall at 1.15am on Sunday.
On Saturday, three people - including a mother and son - were killed in a two-car collision in Co. Louth and a man in his 20s died after he was struck by a lorry in Co Monaghan. On Friday evening, a man and a woman, both in their 60s, died in a road crash in Co Cavan.
“People need to make wise decisions,” said Ms Murdock.
Speed is still the main cause of accidents and it leads to devastating consequences.
