The Longford/Westmeath Garda division is the fatal road traffic accident black spot of the Republic, new figures obtained by The Irish Times reveal.
The statistics show 2.3 people per 10,000 population have been killed on roads in that division this year to December 8th.
Cavan/Monaghan is second in the road fatality black spot table, with two deaths per 10,000 population this year.
Donegal, which has experienced recent tragedies involving the multiple deaths of young people, is third with 1.9 deaths per 10,000 population.
The statistics reveal roads in Dublin city and county are safer than those in any other part of the State - even though about 25 per cent of the Republic's population lives in Dublin and the county's roads carry a much greater volume of traffic than elsewhere.
Five of the six Garda divisions in Dublin have seen the lowest number of road fatalities this year. The exception is the capital's North Central division, where 1.2 people per 10,000 population lost their lives on the roads to December 8th. This puts it as the ninth worst of the 25 Garda divisions.
Other major urban centres around the country are also safer compared with rural regions. Limerick, Cork, Waterford, Galway and Kilkenny cities all feature in the lower half of the fatality league table headed by the Longford/Westmeath division.
In the period under review there were 370 people killed in 336 fatal accidents. This is an increase of 21 fatalities on the same period last year.
Acting chief executive of the National Safety Council Alan Richardson said the worst affected regions are those with the poorest road network. He said information on Irish road fatalities is currently well behind international best practice.
"This will change next year with the establishment of the Road Safety Authority. Five research posts will be advertised next month and by the time the authority is up and running in the middle of next year, we'll have a research unit in place which will deliver a meteoric improvement in the quality of data."
Since the latest figures were compiled a further 15 people have lost their lives on the roads, bringing to 385 the total number of fatalities.
This compares with 374 killed throughout last year and 335 for all of 2003, when road deaths decreased after the partial roll out of the driver penalty points scheme.
The head of the new Garda Traffic Corps, Assistant Commissioner Eddie Rock, has supplied officers with a breakdown of the times when most fatal accidents occur, which is between midnight and 4am at weekends.
Forty-five per cent of all fatal accidents take place during this period, even though just 2 per cent of maximum traffic volume is on the road.
He has asked senior officers to put more gardaí on duty during those times in an effort to halt the increasing road carnage.
