EXCLUSIVE: Carlow driving instructor slams local drivers for 'really silly' hazard

Five people lost their lives in Carlow in 2025 due to fatal road collisions with a total of 185 fatalities on Irish roads nationwide.

This represents 17 more fatal collisions and 14 more deaths (+8%) across Ireland compared to 2024.

In an exclusive interview with a Carlow based driving instructor with 22 years of experience, we found out what areas in Carlow are particularly dangerous.

"Carlow is a challenging place because it has every hazard in a small town. So with Carlow, you have the town centre and then you have the urban areas. The county itself is so much different to town driving.

"You have a huge difference in varying speeds and the actual volume of traffic....in general, it is a challenging place and it is dangerous."

The instructor explained that people's attitudes in rural areas are different to town areas because people actually find it hard to switch from one to another.

"If we take Bagenalstown for an example...because it's a rural area and there's less people and a different volume of traffic, people's attitudes when they come into Carlow town, is overwhelming.

"So they don't really know what's happening because it's coming to them so fast...that can be a big issue, and then when people drive out on the road, you have the varying speeds then from maybe 30 in the town coming out 50, 60 and then up to 80.

"And they don't read the signs when they come out of town because they're so used to being in that small area that they don't realise the change of speed limits. So they're dawdling or they're flying and they're not used to either."

According to a new report by the Road Safety Authority for 2025, close to half (54%) of fatalities occurred on roads with a speed limit of 80km/h or greater compared to 70% of fatalities in 2024.

19% of fatalities occurred on roads with a speed limit of 60km/h and of those 34 fatalities on 60km/h roads and 24 were on local roads, according to the report.

"Traffic lights really confuse people and they find the junction in Graiguecullen really difficult....it's a matter of the student or the driver not forward thinking. They don't look at what's ahead of them, and just what is in front.

"So for an example, if the traffic lights are going to change to amber or red or even green, they don't see that coming. They don't think that far ahead. So they're not prepared. So their attitude to driving is, it's hard. It's hard for people.

Another area that is dangerous, according to the instructor, is near the Drive-thru Brew in Graiguecullen.

"So you have a footpath on the right-hand side, where the garage is, and then you're walking towards the sides of the Shamrock, and there's a new housing estate on the left-hand side.

"And literally, by the Drive-thru Brew, the path ends, and then people are coming out. They're walking on the road with no high-vis, in the dark....there's no lights there as well.

"Also, the ring road there, coming around from Dunnes Stores, all around that ring road, there's no lights on the footpath side.....so it's really, really dark....if people have to step out onto the road, they're in black. 

"So I just feel like, in regards of safety, more high-vis, more lights, more footpaths in the urban areas, especially. But pedestrians have a responsibility to that as well."

The instructor also pointed out that she has seen a lot of drivers in Carlow driving with fogged up windows.

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"People are driving around with cars with the windows fogged up and it is ridiculous that people are in a car, they know how to change gears, they know how to steer and they can't find the button to demist the window. Which is really silly.

"So most people don't know where anything is on the dashboard, even though it's their own car and they're driving it".

The instructor also described an incident that they witnessed very recently in the town.

"We were in the town centre around school time the other day and one lady was on her phone literally walking backwards out across the road not facing the oncoming traffic....so that was a big danger I spotted."

The instructor also gave some advice for parents with children who are about to start learning to drive.

"You should ask yourself a couple of very simple questions. Can your child cycle a bike? Do they have hand-eye coordination.

"Can they do two things at once? And can your child judge when to cross a busy road? So you're timing your judgment and your hand-eye coordination."

She advised that any young person learning to drive should make sure they can cycle a bike and even practice cycling in their local area to familiarise themselves with how the roads work.

"If you have somebody that, and we get this quite a lot, that has no hobbies, that we would call book smart....that they just do a lot of reading, they don't have perception the same as other people. So I would say if you're thinking of driving and you're a book smart person, you need to get out and start cycling a bike and get that judgment going."

For better road safety in Carlow, the instructor said that they would like to see more enforcement for pedestrians like making wearing a high-vis requirement, especially for the schools.

"The Credit Union in Tullow, just before Christmas, supplied every single school, every child, every teacher with a high-vis jacket in 2025...and you don't see kids with their high-vis on."