With the Bank holiday only days away and the May sun finally pulling traffic back onto the regional routes, road safety has shifted to the front of conversation across the South East. The fatal collision outside Nenagh on Tuesday evening, in which a 20-year-old woman lost her life on the R495 Dromineer Road, is a stark reminder that the season of longer journeys also brings sharper risks.
The Road Safety Authority this week launched its new interactive map of injury collisions covering 2016 to 2024, giving the public a clearer picture of where serious incidents have happened on Irish roads. For Waterford and Wexford motorists who already know the N25 as a route with a difficult safety record, the data only confirms what locals have long said — vehicle condition matters just as much as driver behaviour.
That message is being amplified by a busy motoring calendar in the region. The Circuit of Munster Stages Rally returns on Sunday, 31 May, with Tipperary County Council confirming road closures across L-roads near the Limerick border between 8.33am and 6.30pm. Spectators travelling to the event, and locals taking the long way round the diversions, will be putting more miles on tyres and braking systems than usual. Add in the Munster Hurling Final traffic that already snarled routes around Killarney and Cork at the weekend, and the next few weeks will test the car as much as the driver.
