Most of the cities and urban areas in Ireland are witnessing increasing growth of vehicle traffic due to an increasing population, coupled with economic growth levels in Ireland over the last ten years. This has resulted in road traffic problems and deterioration in environment due to an increase in carbon emission. Five major cities namely Dublin, Cork, Waterford, Limerick and Galway have been considered for detailed analysis of road collisions for the period of ten years (i.e. 1997-2006). Despite an increase in population, along with a steady growth in the motor vehicles population and number of driver licence holders (both full and provisional), the number of fatalities in our five cities is generally declining since 1997. Over a period of ten years (1997-2006), there have been 374 road traffic fatalities and 1508 serious injures in the five main cities in Ireland (i.e. Dublin city, Cork city, Waterford city, Limerick city and Galway city). Just under half of the people killed in the cities were pedestrians. Thirty-six per cent of pedestrians killed in our cities were 65 year olds and over. Twenty-two per cent of the people killed were car users and 16 per cent were motorcyclists. Twenty-one per cent of the people killed were aged 65 and over, 40 per cent were 18-34 year olds. Other Key Facts Since 1997 there has been: • 68% reduction in fatalities in Dublin city, 73% reduction in killed and seriously injured in Dublin City. • Pedestrian fatalities in Dublin city have reduced by 77%. • 69.7% reduction in killed and seriously injured in Cork City. • No significant reduction in fatalities in Cork City. • 77.8% reduction in killed and seriously injured in Waterford City. • 41% reduction in killed and seriously injured in Limerick City. • 66.7% reduction in killed and seriously injured in Galway City. • Deaths per million population for cities like Galway, Limerick and Dublin have improved. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting