30 Jul 2020
Posted by Barry Aldworth 
Motorists are being urged to exercise additional caution on the road ahead of an expected increase in cross-country travel during August, as the number of traffic incidents on Irish roads has quadrupled in the post-lockdown period.
While traffic volumes have doubled in the post-lockdown period, the number of traffic incidents reported by AA Roadwatch has increased by 341% compared to the lockdown period. Since Phase 3, the AA Roadwatch team have reported an average of 53 traffic incidents per week compared to a weekly average of 12 such incidents during the lockdown. Since entering Phase 3, the AA has also seen a 20% increase in traffic incidents compared to Phase 2.
For the purposes of this analysis, AA Roadwatch looked solely at incidents which resulted from traffic volumes on the roads, such as a crash or a breakdown. Incidents which likely would have occurred irrespective of traffic volumes, such as a fallen tree, are not included in the numbers compiled by the AA.
“The August Bank Holiday is traditionally one of the busiest weekends on our roads. While traffic patterns have looked quite different so far this year, we still expect that many people will be using the long-weekend and the first few weeks of August to visit family or squeeze in a holiday somewhere in Ireland before the start of the next school year,” Conor Faughnan, AA Director of Consumer Affairs stated. “We do not want to see the number of crashes and collisions on our roads continue to increase, so we would encourage motorists to exercise additional caution in the days and weeks ahead and to reduce their speed when necessary so as to reduce the risk of an incident occurring.”
“One of the few positives from the COVID-19 outbreak has been the significant increase in people across the country and of all ages choosing to walk or cycle more regularly than they would have before the outbreak. Motorists must adapt their behaviour to this fact and share road space safely with more vulnerable road users.”
Despite a significant reduction in traffic volumes during the lockdown period, road deaths in 2020 year-to-date are up on last year. So far this year, 83 people have died on Irish roads, up from 78 at this point last year.
