Ireland’s police force has said it is seriously concerned about the number of deaths on the country’s roads after five fatalities over the weekend.
Those who lost their lives included motorcyclists and a 14-year-old boy on an e-scooter.
The teenager, Joe Carthy, died after his e-scooter collided with a car in Kilkenny city on Saturday evening. He was the third e-scooter user to die in Ireland within the last month.
A local councillor, Joe Malone, said the family was “distraught” by what happened. He told RTÉ radio: “Joe comes from the Traveller community. And they’re all out there last night and coming together and trying to take it in. It’s so sad.”
The use of e-scooters was made legal in the Republic of Ireland in May after previously being a legal grey area. A licence is not needed to ride one and the device does not have to be registered, taxed or insured.
However, riders have to be over 16 and there are other restrictions including a maximum speed of 20km/h and the e-scooter cannot weigh more than 25kg.
In another accident in County Meath on Sunday, a motorcyclist in his 30s and his pillion passenger, also in his 30s, died after a collision involving two other motorbikes near Oldcastle. The two victims were pronounced dead at the scene.
A third man was taken to a nearby hospital with serious injuries while a fourth man was being treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
Supt Liam Geraghty of the Garda Siochána said: “So far this year we are now looking at approximately 16 motorcyclists or pillion passengers who have lost their lives on our roads. There were 26 for the total of 2023. So it is concerning at this early stage, which is the peak social motorcycling time of year , that we’re in such high numbers.”
Another man died in a single-vehicle crash on Sunday night in County Meath and a man in his 40s died in a single-vehicle crash in County Cork in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The Irish police force is appealing to road users who may have camera footage of any of the accidents to come forward.
Before the weekend fatalities, the number of deaths on Irish roads was already up on last year and the finance minister, Jack Chambers, had indicated that more money could be made available to the Road Safety Authority to help with public awareness campaigns.
Until relatively recently the number of road fatalities had been falling but that trend has reversed.
Hard-hitting advertising about the dangers of drink-driving, speeding and the use of mobile phones while behind the wheel has returned in recent weeks. Some of those involved in the campaigns include sporting stars such as the rugby international Andrew Porter and Danny O’Donoghue from the band The Script.
