The Road Safety Authority (RSA) has launched a new campaign highlighting the dangers of speed and complacency on Ireland\u2019s rural roads.<\/p>\n
The campaign, supported by bereaved families, depicts how small increases in speed, often unnoticed by drivers familiar with a route, can have devastating consequences, particularly on rural roads where almost three in four road deaths (73%) and nearly half (47%) of all serious injuries occurred between 2020-2024.<\/p>\n
The advert follows a commuter\u2019s daily drive to work in a Groundhog Day-style. RSA research has highlighted the issue of unintentional speeding, where drivers can exceed limits simply because they are on \u2018autopilot\u2019 or unaware of a speed limit change.<\/p>\n
In the advert, the driver becomes increasingly comfortable and complacent driving with excessive speed on the same route, believing he has full control. On the final day, this leads him to take a bend at a higher speed, causing him to cross the white line into the path of an oncoming car\u2014his evasive manoeuvre to avoid collision with the other car results in a single vehicle collision. The advert\u2019s final message delivers a stark warning: \u201cYou never know what\u2019s coming. Slow down on rural roads.\u201d<\/p>\n
Research conducted on behalf of the RSA by Ipsos B&A has revealed that over 50% of drivers believe it is acceptable to exceed an 80km\/h speed limit by up to 10km\/h, with almost 30% considering it acceptable to exceed the limit by even more.<\/p>\n
This campaign also aligns with the recent reduction in speed limits for rural local roads from 80km\/h to 60km\/h, reinforcing the importance of slowing down.<\/p>\n
\u201cToo many lives are lost because drivers become too comfortable on familiar roads, unconsciously creeping up their speed without realising the deadly consequences,\u201d said Sarah O\u2019Connor, Director of Partnerships & External Affairs at the Road Safety Authority.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis campaign is a wake-up call\u2014because even a small increase in speed can have serious and tragic results.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Road Safety Authority (RSA) has launched a new campaign highlighting the dangers of speed and complacency on Ireland\u2019s rural roads. The campaign, supported by bereaved families, depicts how small increases in speed, often unnoticed by drivers familiar with a route, can have devastating consequences, particularly on rural roads where almost three in four road […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":15023,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edriving.com\/three60\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}