The 20 stretches of road in the State where most collisions occur are all in Dublin, according to a Garda rating system used to determine the location of speed cameras.
An analysis of a new list of over 1,300 safety camera zones, which come into effect from 6am on Monday, reveals the most likely roads where motorists are involved in accidents are all in the capital.
The list, which is published by An Garda Síochána, highlights how some of the busiest routes in the city for traffic have the highest number of collisions.
The road with the highest number of accidents is the R111 which runs between Islandbridge and Irishtown (and extended to Dublin Port as a safety camera zone) which follows the Grand Canal for most of its route.
A total of 118 collisions were recorded on a 9.9km stretch of the road over a three-year period, including two fatal crashes and 18 serious accidents.
The list of roads where Go Safe vans operating speed cameras will be located was devised by gardaí based on all recorded road collisions between 2016 and 2018.
From Monday, speed cameras will be in 903 new locations, while 575 zones were removed because they were no longer considered high-risk areas.
The full list of 1,322 camera locations can be found on the Garda website.
Moyagh Murdock, chief executive of the Road Safety Authority, said: “The locations are also being shared with satellite navigation companies. That’s because this whole project is about stopping people from speeding, not catching people speeding. So there really is no excuse.”
Gardaí grade the risk level of speed zones based on the number of fatal, serious and minor collisions which occurred on them over a three-year period.
While some roads might have been the location of fewer accidents they are considered more high risk because of the comparatively higher number of fatal and serious collisions.
High-risk road
The second most high-risk road in the country is a 5.4km stretch of the R148 between the Chapelizod Bypass along the Liffey quays to the Customs House, which has a 30km/h speed limit for large parts of the route. It was the location for a total 99 of collisions between 2016 and 2018, including 17 serious crashes but not fatalities.
The third most dangerous road is a 21.4km stretch of the M50 between Junction 3 (M1 interchange) and Junction 11 (N81-Tallaght) where a total of 116 collisions were recorded over the period.
Outside Dublin the road with the most collisions is the N8 one-way route around Cork city centre from Horgan's Quay to the Lower Glanmire Road. It is ranked 21st in terms of collision-risk, and is one of the new zones where motorists can expected to see speed cameras vans in operation on a regular basis for the first time.
A total of 31 traffic accidents were recorded over the 3.1km loop of the N8 in Cork city, including one fatal collision and five serious crashes.
Fatal collisions
One of the most dangerous stretches of road in the State is the N4 between Longford and Roosky where four fatal collisions were recorded over three years.
The 1,322 safety camera zones in the updated list only account for just over 4,420km – or 4.6 per cent of the national road network – but they are the location for 76 per cent of all fatalities, 66 per cent of serious injuries and 44 per cent of minor injuries.
Garda figures show that GoSafe vans last year detected an average of 0.9 vehicles per hour breaking the speed limit compared to 1.85 vehicles in 2011.
