Trevor Laffan: Our roads are accident waiting to happen, due to bad drivers

How can you have a traffic accident on a straight stretch of road, one where there are no junctions or intersections, no traffic lights, and no pedestrians?

Of course, illness, debris on the road, tyre blow-outs, and mechanical failure can happen to anyone. But they are rare enough.

Until you add distraction driving, speeding, lane jumping and tailgating into the equation that is. Bad driving, in other words.

Straight stretches of road are far from immune from accidents.

I recently came across one on a dual carriageway. It was rush hour and three damaged cars were pulled into the hard shoulder, all facing the same way. Traffic was up in a heap as a result.

How could three cars driving normally in a straight-line crash into each other you might well ask?

The answer, of course, is they shouldn’t. It only takes one mistake to cause multiple collisions.

There was a piece in the Irish Examiner recently bemoaning “an unconscionable amount of serious traffic accidents” taking place on the main Cork to Waterford road over the years.

Stark data reinforced the need for an upgrade of the N25, especially on its busiest section between the Jack Lynch Tunnel and Midleton, according to a Cork East TD.

A senior county council official admitted the road is currently “substandard and unsafe”.

Another said the persistence of fatal and serious incidents on the N25 points to a road that is operating under chronic strain, with heavy daily commuter traffic, freight movements, and regional travel all funnelled onto a single strategic route.

The dual carriageway between Carrigtwohill and Midleton is one of the busiest roads in the country outside of Dublin, they said, carrying more than 40,000 vehicles per day.

Traffic volumes are expected to increase even further in the coming years, the implication being we can expect more accidents.

So, what about solutions?

The general consensus seems to be an upgrade of the road network is badly needed. But will that solve the problem?

I very much doubt it. Bad drivers will be on the new roads too and they’ll probably be driving faster. Cars will still crash into each other because the standard of driving in this country is abysmal.

It’s absolutely shocking, and it seems to be getting worse every day, if that’s even possible.

During my 35 years in An Garda Síochána, I investigated many traffic accidents, and the cause was almost always attributable to driver error. Cars don’t suddenly overturn on a straight stretch of road while being driven at normal speed, and roads don’t jump up to flip cars over a ditch.

Corners don’t change their position on the road every night while we’re asleep to catch us out the following morning.

In simple terms, cars travelling at the appropriate speed for a particular road and in line with the prevailing conditions at the time should not end up in a heap.

Until we address that, no amount of remedial road works, RSA advertising campaigns, road improvements, signage, speed limits, speed cameras or speed detector vans will eliminate the carnage.

We haven’t a hope of reducing accidents on our roads until such time as we get to grips with the causes.

The Road Safety Authority (RSA) has no shortage of statistics, particularly in relation to fatal accidents. They can tell us that in 2025, there were 185 fatalities on public roads, an 8% increase on 2024, and an average of 15 deaths per month.

Deaths among drivers, motorcyclists and cyclists were highest in 2025 compared to the previous five years. 1 in 5 deaths (21%) were among young people aged 16-25, the highest risk age group in 2025.

High numbers of deaths were also recorded among those aged 46-55 (31), and 56-65 (28). Together, the 46-65 age category represents almost a third of deaths (32%), higher than in the past five years.

Almost half of the fatalities occurred between 12pm and 8pm, and more than a quarter occurred late at night and early into the morning (8pm-4am).

More than half of fatalities occurred between Friday and Sunday, while December (24) and November (21) saw the highest number of fatalities.

Not all the deaths were down to driver error, but the figures tell us how many accidents there were, when they occurred, the day of the week, and the time of the day.

From that data, we know when these accidents are most likely to happen, but what causes them?

Insurance companies, AIG, AA and FBD are agreed on the most common causes of car accidents. Distracted driving is a major cause and one of the biggest sources of distraction while driving is mobile phone use.

Texting, browsing the internet, and making phone calls while driving can take your eyes off the road and reduce reaction time.

Speeding and factors such as road conditions and adverse weather, such as rain or fog, can reduce your visibility and make it harder to control your vehicle.

Driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol is another leading cause. Prescription medications and over-the-counter drugs can also impact your ability to drive, and some medications can cause drowsiness or impaired judgment.

Reckless driving, including speeding, aggressive driving, running red lights or stop signs, and weaving in and out of traffic, doesn’t help either.

But keeping a safe distance from other vehicles, scanning the road ahead for potential hazards, and being prepared to react to unexpected situations would help a lot in reducing the number of accidents on roads.

Getting that into the heads of drivers is the real challenge.