Department urges all users to take personal responsibility to travel safely on our roa D s

The Department for Infrastructure made an appeal recently to all road users to redouble efforts to travel with due care and attention.

The appeal comes as statistics published in early July revealed that 57% of all people who were killed or seriously injured on Northern Ireland roads in 2021 was due to careless driving; a trend that has been steadily increasing over a number of years.

While the number of people killed or seriously injured on our roads due to careless driving is down 17% from the 2004-2008 baseline, there has been an increase in the number of people killed or seriously injured due to careless driving from 2016 onwards.

The Department is responsible for road safety and last October the draft Road Safety Strategy to 2030 was published. This strategy contains a renewed focus to make our roads safer for all. The Department also recently introduced a new fixed penalty notice of £100 and three penalty points to specifically help tackle careless driving.

The evidence shows that more than 95% of road traffic collisions, where someone is killed or seriously injured, is due to human error such as a choice to speed, drink or drug driving or driving carelessly or while distracted. People driving or riding carelessly is the cause behind the majority of deaths and serious injuries on our roads here. Most collisions are avoidable. Careless driving is made up of many behaviours including inattention or distraction, wrong course position and driving too close amongst others and is the biggest cause of deaths and serious injuries.

As we use the roads as