The Department of Transport admitted yesterday that road deaths are back up to pre-penalty point levels. The death toll for 2004 is now set to be the highest in three years after a spate of fatal accidents in the last week.
A woman in her early 20s who was killed in Co Mayo yesterday afternoon became the 374th person to be killed on Irish roads, 38 more than in all of 2003.
The number of fatalities for this year are also expected to exceed the total number of fatalities in 2002, the year penalty points were introduced. They were introduced in October of that year.
That year 376 people were killed, while 411 were killed in 2001.
The latest fatal accident occurred on Achill Island. A young woman was fatally injured when the van she was travelling in collided with a truck travelling in the opposite direction just outside Mulranny.
On Tuesday evening, a 70-year-old male pedestrian was killed after he was hit by a bus in Dublin city centre, at the junction between Summerhill and the North Circular Road. He was taken to the Mater Hospital, less than 500 yards away, but died from his injuries there.
Yesterday the Department of Transport admitted the road fatality rate was now at pre-penalty point levels.
"It is obvious deeply disappointing that the statistics are the way they are," a spokesman for the Minister, Mr Cullen, said.
However, he said motorists also had a "personal responsibility" in relation to the problem.
He said that while penalty points had "definitely saved lives, the statistics cannot be ignored".