The number of people who have died on the State's roads so far this year has risen to 314, following the death yesterday of five people, three children and two adults, outside Arklow, Co Wicklow. The total for last year was 472.
In the past 18 months the stretch of road north of Arklow has claimed 20 lives in road accidents.
Most recently, on August 26th, two people died and seven people were injured, including three children, three miles south of yesterday's tragedy. A Dublin woman in her 40s and an Italian tourist in his 20s died when the cars in which they were travelling collided. A man is facing charges over that accident, which took place near Scratnagh Cross, where last year Senator Michael Enright from Wexford and three other people were killed in a two-car crash.
There have been a number of high-profile road deaths over the past few months, including that of a young Kerry footballer, who died on September 6th. Mr Martin Beckett (18), of Killarney, a member of this year's victorious Kerry All-Ireland under-21 football team, and a friend, Mr Sean O'Connor (18), also from Killarney, died in a head-on collision in Tipperary. They were on their way home from a holiday in Ibiza and were driving from Dublin to Kerry.
A Kilkenny man, Mr Gerard Phelan (28), was killed in the other car.
On September 7th, Darren O'Connor, son of golfer Christy O'Connor Jnr, was among three people killed in an accident on the Galway to Limerick road.
On August 31st, Mr Edward Barrett, a first cousin of Olympic boxer Francis Barrett, died in a three-car crash outside Galway.
The day before, three men died in road accidents in Northern Ireland, while a few days earlier a 38year-old father died when he was knocked down by a car on the Bray bypass at the Enniskerry turn-off.
Over a 48-hour period during August six people died in road accidents in the State.
At the start of August the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, spoke of a rising trend in road accidents since 1994. He was speaking at the launching of a strategy, "The Road To Safety", which is aimed at reducing road deaths by targeting behaviour.
The Minister said 40 per cent of cars and heavy vehicles on Irish roads breached speed limits, that alcohol was still a major factor in road accidents and that the rate of seat-belt wearing was well below international best practice.
The Government is preparing legislation which will include a penalty points system for driving offences, using breath-testing as evidence and introducing on-the-spot fines for not wearing seat belts. It is seeking to reduce road accidents by 20 per cent.
Over the August bank holiday the Garda operated 3,000 checkpoints and had additional speed checks out in an effort to reduce road deaths. Last year 37 people died on the roads during August. Figures are not yet available for the same month this year.