Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 27 June 2024
Public Accounts Committee
Financial Statements 2022: Road Safety Authority
9:30 am
Mr. Michael Rowland:
We will do that. On seatbelt-wearing, we do observational surveys whereby we go out to the roadsides and observe. We have seen a decline in the driver seatbelt-wearing rate of 4% and in the passenger seatbelt-wearing rate of 5%. These statistics were recorded in our 2023 observational survey. In addition, between 2019 and 2023, 23% of driver fatalities and 21% of passenger fatalities involved individuals who were not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the collision. This is very concerning. I am referring to people who were killed or injured.
There is a high wearing rate. The wearing rate among the general population is over 90%, but the people who are being killed and seriously injured are not wearing their seatbelts, as I referred to.