Motorcyclists Fatalities in Ireland Throughout 2021

For many, 2021 will remain a strange and in many ways unprecedented year in their memories. While not as unusual as 2020, 2021 was still marked with business closures and restrictions easing before being reintroduced.

However as strange as 2021 certainly was, when it came to road safety there was an unfortunate constant. Motorcyclists were still hugely overrepresented in road accidents and tragically in road fatalities. While the number of road fatalities overall has fallen, 128 road deaths from January to December compared to 145 road deaths over the same period in 2020. A large percentage of these road deaths involved motorcyclists.

Motorcyclist Road Traffic Accidents in Numbers

To get a sense of how overrepresented motorcyclists are in road traffic accident fatalities it’s worth breaking it down into numbers. Based on data from the Irish Road Safety authority over 1.5% of all vehicles registered in Ireland are Motorbikes, yet judging by the year to date, Motorcyclists make up almost 16.5% of all road traffic fatalities in 2021. Of the 128 road fatalities recorded to date this year, 21 of these deaths were motorcyclists.

Efforts to Protect Motorcyclists

These statistics haven’t gone unnoticed. Increasing efforts and resources have gone into motorcyclist training. However, it should be noted this training is not to make the motorcyclist a better rider, instead, it’s about teaching motorcyclists to notice the erratic behaviour of other road users. As the above statistics have shown us, motorcyclists are vulnerable road users. Other road users and especially careless vehicle drivers can potentially cause devastating injuries to motorcyclists.

Conclusion

Although the overall statistics are showing that Irish roads are gradually becoming safer for everyone, motorcyclists remain at the mercy of the poor decisions of other drivers. If you’re a motorcyclist that’s been injured in a road traffic accident, we urge you to get in contact with our motorbike accident claim solicitors today.