Busy south-east route tops fatalities table

The State's worst road for fatal accidents is the N25 through the south-east - the road on which the Taoiseach's general election cavalcade hit speeds of 95 m.p.h. last May - it has emerged.

Thirty-nine people died on the N25, which links Cork and Rosslare, between 1996 and 2000, according to a study by the National Roads Authority of locations at which high accident rates were recorded.

The figure is four times higher than the next-worst road for fatalities, the much busier N7 route between Dublin and Limerick.

The number of fatalities on the N25 was almost double the number on the N/M1 route from Dublin to the Border, which recorded 20 deaths during the period.

Much of the study period coincided with the five-year Government road safety strategy 1998-2002 - The Road to Safety - which was launched by Mr Ahern.

On May 2nd last, Mr Ahern's election cavalcade was, unusually, behind schedule when it left New Ross and joined the single-carriageway, 22-mile New Ross to Wexford section of the N25.

The convoy of eight cars, some emblazoned with Fianna Fáil flags and posters, at times hit 75 m.p.h. in a 40 m.p.h. zone and passed a junction at 80 m.p.h. as well as reaching a top speed of 95 m.p.h.

The cavalcade arrived in Wexford at 12.43 p.m., having completed the 22-mile journey in 17 minutes.

The road safety strategy, largely focusing on speed and drink-driving, was never fully implemented by the Government, leading to accusations from the chairman of the National Safety Council, Mr Eddie Shaw, that some of the people who died would be alive today if it had been delivered.

The Government recently acknowledged that the safety strategy will not now meet its target to reduce road deaths by 20 per cent, over 1997 levels, by the end of this year.

While the NRA is averse to descriptions such as "worst road", a spokesman for the authority agreed that the N25 had accumulated the most road fatalities during the period of the study.

The report, entitled High Accident Locations 1996-2000, makes it clear that the N25 also came second in the category of "total casualties" (deaths and injuries), totalling 679 over the five-year period.

Only the N7 - with 790 - recorded more "total casualties". The N7 and the N25 are of broadly similar length, being 98 miles and 108 miles, respectively.

In the category of "accident rates" (a weighting of roads, taking into account the number of accidents as well as the traffic volume and the length of road), the N14 road from Letterkenny to Lifford in Co Donegal recorded the worst "accident rate" - 35.24.

This, in effect, means that the road had a very high number of accidents in proportion to its 11-mile length. Over the five-year period of the NRA study there were five fatalities among the 90 people who were injured in a total of 44 separate accidents.

Other roads which recorded high fatalities during the period of the study were the N4 Dublin to Sligo road, which had 33 fatalities on its 111-mile route; the N8 Dublin to Waterford road, which had 30 fatalities on 91 miles of road; and the N11 Dublin to Wexford road, which had 31 fatalities on 68 miles of road.