Significant increase in number of serious collisions on Tipperary’s roads

Photo © Tipp FM

The number of serious injury collisions are up in Tipperary so far this year.

However, other road offences seem to be decreasing across the county over the last few months.

The number of collisions where there is a serious injury have increased by 57 % in the year to date from 14 last year to 22 this year.

However, it’s not all bad news because Chief Superintendent Derek Smart says a major jump in the amount of intoxication checkpoints being carried out in the county has led to a number of other offences decreasing.

Up to July there have been 1,890 of these checkpoints conducted up 120% on last year’s figure.
Chief Superintendent Smart says this has directly led to a drop in drink driving detections from 139 to 119, and drug driving which is down 42% from 48 offences to 28.
He also reported a significant decrease in mobile use while driving of 40% from 480 detections to 290.

Speeding is also down in Tipperary from 2207 to 1674.

When questioned about actions that can be taken to stop the increase of serious injury collisions Smart stated that they would now be focusing more of their efforts on checkpoints in rural locations and on minor roads.