That is three more deaths than the same period last year – which itself represented a decade-long high.
Four people have died due to three road accidents in the space of just 48 hours earlier this week. A young woman suffered fatal injuries in a collision in Waterford on Monday night and two young men were killed in Limerick when the car they were travelling in struck a wall on Tuesday evening. Last night, a 33-year-old male pedestrian died a day after an accident in which he and another person were struck by a car in Ballina, Co Mayo, on Tuesday.
The two young men who died in Limerick have been named as Darragh Dullea (20) from Clonakilty, Co Cork, and Cillian Kirwan (19) from Pilton, Co Kilkenny.
Both were second-year students at the Salesian Agricultural College in Pallaskenry, Co Limerick.
The two men were passengers in a vehicle that struck a wall on Tuesday evening near Ballyengland outside Askeaton on the N69 Limerick-Tralee road.
Two other young men in the car, who are also students of the college, were injured in the incident.
College principal Derek O’Donoghue offered his sympathies to the family and friends of the men who lost their lives.
Mr O’Donoghue said he wished the two other students in the car, who sustained non-life threatening injuries, a “good and speedy recovery” in University Hospital Limerick.
He said classmates of the deceased would be supported through such a distressing time.
He added that the students lived on campus and were taking a higher cert in agricultural mechanisation.
“The fact that they are residential here means they are a tighter-knit community of students,” he said.
“Not alone are they in college, but all the students live here and go home at the weekends.”
Fifteen people have lost their lives so far this month, which equates to one death every 33 hours on average.
January last year was one of the deadliest months for accidents on record. It set the tone for the worst year for fatalities in over a decade, with 188 people killed on roads over the course of the year.
Four counties – Dublin, Kildare, Carlow and Limerick – recorded three deaths each over the first seven-and a-half weeks of this year.
Garda figures indicate the deaths involved drivers (12), passengers (12), pedestrians (6), motorcyclists (2) and cyclists (1). According to Road Safety Authority (RSA) research, people aged 16 to 25 were the most-at-risk road users last year. This group represented 26pc of total fatalities (48 deaths) and the figures represented an overall increase of 23 road-user fatalities compared to 2022.
The research also shows that men are dying on the roads at a rate of five-to-one compared to women.
RSA chairperson Liz O’Donnell said the situation on Irish roads was “a cause of serious concern”.
She appealed to road users to adhere to safety advice and to slow down, never to drive while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, maintain vehicles and be aware of other road users, in particular cyclists and pedestrians.
Junior transport minister Jack Chambers, who has initiated a number of road-safety initiatives over the past two years, said it was “a serious issue” that there had been a decline in Garda Road Policing Unit personnel numbers.
Road safety campaign group PARC said the upward spiral in road deaths was a matter of great concern and needed urgent action.
“What is worrying is that the numbers have been going in the wrong direction in 2022 and in 2023,” PARC founder Susan Gray said.
PARC described as “heartbreaking” the further decline in Garda Road Policing Unit personnel numbers, which are now 15pc below 2021 levels.
The latest Department of Justice analysis of garda staffing levels revealed that personnel attached to road-policing units last year had fallen to 632 personnel – 104 below levels from just two years ago.
“In the same year 188 people died in road crashes, the highest number in almost a decade,” Ms Gray said. “We noted from the data that some counties suffered more losses, both in roads-policing numbers and road fatalities, than others.
“In the absence of high-visibility, high-volume roads policing, drivers will continue to take chances, often with devastating results.
“There is an urgent need for more gardaí to be assigned to roads policing units in 2024 or we may see another devastating year like 2023 or even worse.”