The Government's key analysis of how its road safety measures worked in 2003 has still not been published by the National Roads Authority (NRA), it has emerged.
The NRA, which puts the report together each year, said data on collisions from the Garda Síochána was slower coming in than in previous years. The annual Road Accident Facts report is usually published between September and November the following year, but for the first time no document was published in 2004.
The report gives detailed analysis on how effective the Government's safety strategy has been in saving lives. As well as confirming death and injury tolls, it breaks down locations, types of accident, age profiles, days of the week and times of day.
Michael Egan of the NRA says they were "disappointed that things have panned out this way". The report should be available in the coming weeks, he says, and a "final call" will be made this week on whether it would be formally launched or simply put on the NRA website. "We are just dotting the Is and crossing the Ts - we're 99 per cent there." The report's name is to be changed to Road Collision Facts, but this has no connection with the delay, he says.
Data on CT68 accident forms "has not come in as promptly as in other years," adds Egan. "This is primarily a matter for the guards - they generally treat them in a very serious fashion and the Government and the high-level road safety group do have very current provisional data provided regularly by the gardaí."
The report had a "vital role" to play in Government strategy, he said. "To effectively review if specific measures are working you need that more detailed analysis.
"The level of detail is of value to the Government and specifically to the high-level road safety group. It's a barometer of performance, tracking the rate of progress and feeding into the ongoing review of where we are at."
A Garda spokeswoman says the CT68 forms were submitted by individual Garda districts. "When you are investigating an accident the CT68 form is filled out and a copy goes to the NRA," she says. "They are completed as soon as the accident happens and sent off fortnightly."
She could not offer an explanation for any delay on the 2003 data, adding that many Garda districts would have already sent off all of the forms for 2004.
