|
Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey TD welcomed provisional
figures released by the European Transport Safety Council
that Ireland is now ranked among the top ten best performing
EU countries in terms of road safety.
Ireland is now ranked 9th out of 25 EU countries.
Speaking at the European Road
Safety Performance Index (PIN) conference in Dublin, Ministerl
Dempsey said that much had been achieved in terms of reducing
deaths on our roads. "We have made good progress in reducing
road deaths in recent years, but we must never become complacent.
Every death on our roads is tragic and avoidable. The core
objective of the Government's new Road Safety Strategy is
to save over 400 lives between now and 2012. This target is
achievable if the current rate of reduction in road casualties
is maintained. We will continue to work hard on making our
roads safer.
"In 2001, the road death rate
per million population in Ireland was 107. By 2007, the rate
had fallen to 79 per million population - putting Ireland
below the average EU road death rate of 86. Ireland ranked
second highest amongst EU Member States in the reduction of
road casualties in 2007. This year, we will continue to work
hard to maintain this trend."
|
