County Cavan suffers three road deaths in 2017
For the second year in a row, the cost of lives lost on the county roads has stayed the same.
The close of the calendar year on December 31 saw no change in the number of road deaths, which remained at three in Co Cavan for 2017. There were also three road deaths in Co Cavan in 2016.
They included county hurler Patrick Bannon (22) from Ballyjamesduff, who died tragically on January 30 when his car collided with fencing on the roadside at Lower Lavey on the N3.
In May, a single vehicle collision at Mullagh claimed the life of Cormac Murphy (20) from Cloughbally Upper. The serious early morning crash saw five others injured.
Finally, CEO Breffni Integrated CLG Brendan Reilly lost his life following a single-vehicle accidetn which occurred on the Cavan to Ballyjamesduff road near Crosskeys on November 24.
By comparison, there were eight road deaths in neighbouring Co Monaghan, the most recent of which, on November 29 last, claimed the life of Fr Joe McCluskey.
Fr McCluskey had been attending house calls visiting sick parishioners when the crash with an articulated lorry occurred near McCaughey’s filling station on the N2 between Castleblaney and Carrickmacross.
There were five road deaths recorded in Co Monaghan in 2016.
Nationally, provisional statistics published by Road Safety Authority for 2017 show a 15% drop in road deaths compared with the previous year.
A total of 158 people lost their lives on Ireland's roads compared to 186 lives lost in 2016.
The figure is the lowest figure for annual road deaths since they were first officially recorded in 1959.
However, RSA Chief Executive Moyagh Murdock believes Ireland remains a "long way off achieving its road safety targets".
She said: “The strategy has set the task of making Ireland’s roads as safe as the best performing countries in the European Union, specifically to reduce road fatalities on Irish roads to 124 or fewer by 2020.
“This means there must be a further 22% reduction in road deaths, on 2017 figures, over the next three years.
“While this will be a challenging target to achieve given our mixed road safety performance since 2013, it's one that we must all strive to achieve through our continued efforts to implement the 144 road safety measures contained in the strategy.”