Irish Road Injuries 5,500 Higher Than Official Figures Over 9 Years
New HSE data reveals nearly 20,000 people were hospitalized from Irish road incidents over nine years, over 5,500 more than official figures. Labour's Marie Sherlock criticized inadequate data sharing and collection, urging better use of hospital data to improve road safety and policing. This discrepancy highlights a significant underreporting of serious road injuries.
New HSE data indicates serious injuries on Irish roads are significantly higher than official collision figures. Almost 20,000 people were hospitalized due to road traffic incidents over nine years, exceeding garda and Road Safety Authority statistics by over 5,500 serious injuries.
Labour Party health spokesperson Marie Sherlock highlighted inadequate data sharing between gardaí and local authorities. She stated that hospital-recorded serious injuries in 2024 were 56% higher than those collected by An Garda Síochána, nearly a thousand more. Sherlock noted that gardaí are often not called to collisions where emergency services transport individuals to hospitals.
Sherlock emphasized the need for proper hospital data collection to inform roads policing and local authority engineering solutions. She pointed out that An Garda Síochána records only half of all cyclist collisions. She also expressed concern that the active travel budget has remained stagnant since 2020, effectively decreasing in real terms, and that there are fewer roads police.