We must never become de-sensitised to road carnage

‘Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart’ 

- Easter 1916: WB Yeats

The tragic carnage on our roads and the unspeakable loss and misery that results is worsening, if anything, particularly considering the deaths of FOUR more people in collisions on Saturday, three in Donegal and one in Dublin.

Unfortunately, Kerry shares fully in this appalling ongoing catastrophe.

So far this year three people have lost their lives in this county. 

They were – Shane ‘Roundy’ Cronin of Rathmore who was only 37 years old when he died on January 3; Mhlanguli Brian Moyo of Castleisland lost his life one week later and 30-year-old pedestrian Paul Clifford of Casement View, Ardfert died on March 2 after a collision with a car at Tubrid More, Ardfert.

This terrible loss of life is the latest bitter instalment after years of ongoing agony. From 2021 to 2025 inclusive, 38 people were killed on Kerry’s roads, the worst year was 2023 when TEN people died.

Now the Road Safety Authority (RSA) has revealed details of significant research to identify so-called ‘black spots’ and particularly dangerous roads all over the country in the period from 2016 to 2024.

In Kerry, they’ve identified three roads of special concern. They are – the N22 from the county bounds to Killarney-Tralee, where eight people died; the N21 Tralee-Limerick road, where six people were killed; the N70 Tralee-Killorglin-Kenmare route, where five people died as a result of collisions.

Overall, during the period researched 63 people were killed. Can you imagine the grief that number of deaths has caused, with the heartache continuing without remission to this day and with no possible let-up into the future.

The RSA research demonstrates that people are being killed at a higher rate in Kerry than in most other counties in Ireland.

It’s utterly shocking – and totally unacceptable.

And the question now is: are we just going to read the RSA research, do a bit of the usual tut-tutting, say it’s awful altogether and then move on with our lives hoping that the dreaded ‘knock on the door’ with the garda car in the background, will never be an anguish we’ll have to endure?

That, surely, is not good enough.

It would be a disservice to ourselves and our loved ones and a disrespect to hundreds of people in our communities suffering daily torment as a result of deaths of much-loved family members that have already occurred.

The information provided by the RSA should act as a call to action. 

There needs to be a multi-faceted response that includes infrastructural upgrades to the ‘dangerous’ roads identified and, generally, stricter enforcement of road safety by deploying more gardaí to traffic duties.

That’s where Kerry County Councillors and our five TDs have a key role to play. They need to speak up for Kerry’s road users, for resources to make our roads safer.

If necessary their demands must be unremitting, even shrill. Lives depend on it.

Garda enforcement is, obviously, an essential ingredient that’ll require political focus, in order to provide the resources.

But the most important thing of all is what we, as road users, do next, how we behave when we sit behind a wheel or use the public road in any other way.

Better roads, policing and enforcement is needed. But we have an even more influential role to play.

We need to drive with safety as our only focus; we need to slow down, stay away from drink and drugs while driving, have manners and courtesy, and dial down the frustration and anger. And we need to get our kids and friends to do the same.

If we fail to do that, then Yeats’ words will stand as a firm rebuke to all of us, about how prolonged suffering has dimmed our feelings.