Road deaths for May up 50% on last year

Four people were killed in road accidents over a 10-hour period between Sunday night and yesterday morning.

The additional deaths brought to 29 the number killed on the Republic's roads so far this month, reversing a downward trend in monthly comparisons between 2002 and 2003.

A man and a woman died when the car in which they were travelling was in a head-on collision with a van at Pallasgreen on the N24 Limerick-Tipperary road at 7.20 a.m. yesterday. They were named as Clodagh Phelan (25), the driver of the car, and Desmond Quinlin (33), both of Birchwood, Killure, Co Waterford.

Two male occupants of the van were taken to Limerick Regional Hospital where their condition was described yesterday as not life-threatening.

On Sunday evening at about 8.55 p.m. two men aged 33 and 28 were killed when the car in which they were travelling left the road near Letterkenny, Co Donegal. Gardaí said the car hit a verge before overturning.

The road deaths so far this month represent a dramatic rise of almost 50 per cent on the number for the whole month of May last year, which stood at 20.

Gardaí said the figures, which are provisional, represented a "blip" in an otherwise downward trend but they also pointed out that the figure of 20 deaths for 2002 was unusually low.

The Irish Insurance Federation said that while penalty points appeared to have had an effect on driver behaviour and accidents, there had been 31 deaths in March this year, which was close to the previous year's total of 34.

From the start of the year until 9 a.m. yesterday, 128 people had lost their lives in 115 collisions. Of those 55 were drivers, 28 were pedestrians, 23 were passengers, 19 were motorcyclists, two were pedal cyclists and one was a motorcycle pillion passenger.

While the figures represent an increase on May last year, the overall total so far this year is still below the 144 who were killed on the Republic's roads during the same period, January 1st to May 19th last year.

This reduction has been ascribed to the introduction of penalty points last October. In all, some 60 aspects of driver behaviour and vehicle standards will be subject to penalty points when the full scheme is rolled out.

From June 1st driving without a valid insurance policy will incur five penalty points. However, this latest offence will not be applied at the roadside by the Garda as offenders are required, under legislation, to attend court.

According to the Department of Transport, the five-point penalty will apply in addition to any imposed by the courts. A spokesman said that, while the courts often imposed outright bans for driving without insurance, the five-point penalty would remain for three years and could act as a continuing deterrent once a driver's licence is restored, following a court-imposed ban.