Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 11: To ask the Minister for Transport if he has reviewed the recent study by the European Transport Safety Council which indicated that deaths on motorways here increased by 11% between 2000 and 2006 and ranked Ireland in seventh place with 2.39 deaths per billion kilometres travelled; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9617/08]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I understand that, according to the recent report on motorway deaths published by the European Transport Safety Council, Ireland is ranked seventh of nineteen European countries surveyed. The survey shows that in Ireland the deaths per billion vehicle-kilometres for 2006 at 2.39 was better than the EU average, which was 4 deaths per billion vehicle-kilometres.

This is, of course, a welcome finding although we must continue our efforts to reduce fatalities on our roads to as low a level as possible.

The report itself sounds a note of caution relating to trends drawn from fatalities on motorway in countries such as Ireland where the annual number of such fatalities is below 20. The report points out that in countries with such low motorway death rates, the number of fatalities from one year to the next year is subject to substantial random fluctuation.

It is a core objective of the Road Safety Strategy 2007-2012 to reduce the level of fatalities on our roads to no more than 60 fatalities per million, which is 252 fatalities per annum or 21 per month.