Thirteen children were killed or seriously injured on Mayo’s roads over a six-year period from 2006 to 2012.
This shocking fact is contained in a report documenting the tragic road statistics released last week by the Road Safety Authority and Electric Ireland, who have teamed up to distribute more than 85,000 high visibility vests to every child starting school this year.
It showed that four children, aged under 14 years, were killed in Mayo between 2006 and 2012, and nine children were seriously injured in the same period.
The high visibility vests will be included in the RSA’s ‘Back to School’ road safety packs, which will be sent to primary schools nationwide over the coming months.
The RSA and Electric Ireland are also urging parents, guardians and teachers to make road safety a priority as the new school year starts.
There has been a worrying increase in child road fatalities nationally.
Thirteen children have lost their lives on Irish roads in the first six months of the year.
That represents a dramatic increase on road deaths among children when compared to 2013, when 13 children died in total over the entire year.
Six of the children who died on roads this year were pedestrians, six were car passengers and one was a quad bike user.
Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Paschal Donohoe encouraged parents and teachers to renew their commitment to educating the nation’s youngest road-users about road safety.
“The increase in child casualties on our roads this year is incredibly worrying, after many years of seeing year-on-year decreases,” he said. “Attitudes to road safety are formed at a young age and we would urge parents and teachers to continue to prioritise teaching our youngest and most vulnerable road-users how to stay safe on the roads.”
