The Road Safety Association have released their report into fatal collision statistics on Irish roads for 2017.

Overall 2017 saw a 15% decrease in road deaths with 158 fatalities compared with 186 in 2016 while the same period saw fatalities of cyclists increase by 50% with 15 deaths up from 10 in 2016, a record for the decade.

Of the cyclist fatalities:

•  all 15 fatalities involved motorists
• 13 fatalities occurred during the hours of daylight
• 2 occurred during darkness
• the majority of fatalities occurred in zones of 80km/h and above

County Kerry had 8 road fatalities, an slight increase from the 2016 figure (7) with 38% (3) of these deaths being cyclists in stark contract with the national average of approximately 10%.

Of these 3 deaths one was a tourist, and one a sport/recreation cyclist cycling with a group.

For further analysis see Irish Cycle and Maynooth Cycling Campaign