Kildare road accident info should be made available to save lives

The Road Safety Authority should provide information concerning  crash location data with Kildare County Council.

According to Cllr Bill Clear this has not been done for eight years and this is because of concerns about General Data Protection Regulation legislation .

“GDPR is being used as the reason why the RSA stopped sharing the data. GDPR came into force across the European Union in May 2018, but the RSA seems to have only started to work on the issue with the Data Protection Commissioner in 2022,” said Cllr Clear, who raised the matter at a KCC meeting.

He believes the availability of accurate and timely data is crucial for identifying patterns, improving road infrastructure, and ultimately preventing accidents and saving lives.

 “It’s outrageous — we have seen a steady increase in serious injuries, and a huge increase in deaths last year. It is alarming to see an increase in serious injuries and deaths on the roads, especially with the total of 184 people who died in 2023 compared to 155 deaths in 2022. This represents an increase of 29 deaths or a 19% rise in road deaths compared to last year. 2024 is going only one way, up.”.

He said the RSA needs to provide the data apart from “running an awareness campaign here or there.”

He said KCC’s road engineering staff need to be aware of what improvements should be made to reduce the risk of serious accidents.

“When people die on the roads, it makes the headlines. But when people are seriously injured, a lot of the time it doesn’t. That's where data is really helpful because then we can see where the patterns are. We can see if there are junctions where minor injuries constantly occur.”

He said that once the patterns are known intervention and prevention can take place.

“This will save lives and reduce the misery that is being inflicted on people.”