Gardaí reveal list of most dangerous roads

A list of the 400 most dangerous stretches of road has been drawn up by gardaí and the National Roads Authority (NRA).

Privatised speed cameras will be sited along these sections when they are rolled out next year, and from November gardaí are going to use this information as part of their speed enforcement measures.

Speaking on RTÉ radio this morning, the head of the Garda Traffic Bureau, Chief Supt John Farrelly said: the "red-zones" would be "reduced to amber and green zones through our activities".

The zones are eight-kilometre sections of road. According to the Garda research, 57 per cent of the 400 "red zones" are on main national roads, 41 per cent are on regional roads, and just 2 per cent are on rural roads.

Chief Supt Farrelly said: "These are actually facts that we've gathered up. We've looked back at the history for the last ten and eight years on the roads, and this is the data that's been gathered.

"We've had this information before, but this is the first time that we've actually collated it in such a way that we'll be able to concentrate our efforts," he said.

The NRA and the Garda Traffic Corps have identified 975 stretches of road - each eight kilometres long - following an analysis of road collisions.

Although the most dangerous sections have been classified as "red zones", less dangerous sections have been designated "amber" and "green" zones, using a points system to rank the number of fatal, serious and minor crashes on a particular stretch.

This marking system will be repeated every year.

"This is an intelligent policing system, putting resources into red zone areas where people are being killed," he said.

"The idea is to stop people being killed. The cameras will primarily be in red zones where people are being killed because of speed," he said.

A full list of the "red zone" roads is available below.