Shortly after 8 am on the 25th of September 2023 on my inaugural drive into college, the wistful first-day experience I had imagined shattered in front of my eyes… literally. While driving past a bus, my windscreen shattered on top of me, cutting my hands and face. A teenage boy had bolted into the road as I drove past, causing an unavoidable accident. He was late for the bus that I was driving past, and he decided to run into the roads without care for his safety. He ran directly into my path, and before I even saw him, his elbow was smashing my windscreen on top of me. He ignored the designated pedestrian crossing 10 meters away from him and the oncoming traffic. Witnesses said I couldn’t have avoided him; he ran into my path at the exact moment I crossed the space. I was 18. I had held my full driver’s license for 237 days. The boy was fine; he walked away with a bruised body. I walked away with cut hands, a police investigation, an insurance investigation, a crumpled car, a tripled insurance policy quote and the next 9 months of my life to be anxiety riddled, filled with constant emails, case updates and arguments.
If a young adult told any stranger, ‘I was in a pedestrian collision at age 18 whilst on my ‘N plate’, you can bet they would assume it was your fault. You’re the driver. You’ve only been driving a couple of years. You operated the car, you hit him. This is what I was faced with for months. And its probably what I’ll be faced with for the rest of my life when the story arises. And it isn’t true.
If you asked me about my opinion on these kinds of collisions on September 24th, I might have said ‘Yes’ the pedestrians are always ‘in the right’. Unfortunately for me, I had to learn the hard way that this isn’t always the case. Car insurance for a young driver is an incredibly precious thing. I spent almost a year defending my corner and my innocence in the case, trying to ensure my insurance stayed affordable and my status as a young driver kept separate from my collision.
In 2025, young drivers will still be treated badly by ‘mature’ drivers. God forbid you have an L or N plate sticker in your window or drive slower. Drivers on Irish roads have no patience for those learning, and it’s dangerous.
When I was a beginner female driver in a Fiat 500, I felt like I’d witnessed it all. Aggressive overtaking from angry men in bigger, more powerful, more ‘masculine’ cars. Furious beeping and honking when I didn’t pull off from the junction 0.5 seconds after the light went green. Experiencing dangerous tailgating at 120km/h because having a small car means it’s ok to bully the driver. Am I doing anything wrong in these situations? No, but the nasty driving environment in Ireland means people are losing their lives. This article is not one that I want drowning in numbers and statistics, but it’s important to understand how alarming our statistics are to see my point. In 2023, 184 deaths occurred on Irish roads. This was a 20% increase from 2022. In the first 6 months of that year, 23 of those deaths were people between the age of 16-25. This accounted for 25% of all road deaths in those months.
Between 2019 and 2023, there were 324 fatalities and 2,353 serious injuries. 85% of the fatalities and over 70% of the injuries occurred on rural roads, particularly on straight stretches. Male drivers accounted for almost 80% of fatalities. In this same period, 15 learner drivers lost their lives. Many of them were driving unaccompanied. In Ireland, it’s incredibly common for learners to drive without an accompanying driver. To some, that’s normal, but since that day in 2023, I’ve seen it all differently.
In my collision, the thing I was most grateful for was my license and insurance. If I had been an unaccompanied learner or had no insurance, the chance of the blame falling on me would have skyrocketed. However, because I was driving the speed limit and everything I was doing was legal, I was found completely not at fault.
I am not able to deny that young drivers are known to have the urge to let loose on empty stretches of rural roads. I’ve been a passenger in them. I’ve clung to my seat, hoping the driver can see around the bend better than I can. This type of driving is killing people. But are the reduced speed limits that come into effect on February 7th going to change that? The way I see it, a driver (of any age or experience) who wants to hit 100km in an 80 zone, is not going to slow down, even if the speed limit is reduced to 60. Those that want to speed, will speed. The punishments for speeding in Ireland are not strict enough, and they’re not saving lives. It’s a fine of 160 Euro and 3 points.
In countries all over Europe, you will see permanent speed cameras all over their roads. In Ireland, you’ll see a speed van marked on the Waze app that has a 50% chance of actually being there. Dotting vans around the country aren’t going to discourage aggressive drivers. In Switzerland speeding fines are based on income, which means that wealthy offenders can be hit with massive penalties. If you speed over 25 km/h in urban areas, 30 km/h in rural areas, or 35 km/h on highways, it results in automatic license suspension. Excessive speeding can lead to prison time. We have nothing that steep in Ireland. Drivers are only convicted after somebody has died.
So, what do I think will happen with these new speeding restrictions? From my experience, the speed limits won’t bring the epiphany the government hopes it will. Drivers who get aggressive and drive dangerously around ‘slow’ drivers will only be angrier now. It will cause them to perform dangerous manoeuvres, such as tailgating, risky overtaking, aggressive flashing and honking. Even swerving sharply in front of the driver after overtaking to make them panic.
Yes, it is good that rural roads, most of which lack any lighting at night (only some having a reflective strip on the road), will have lower limits. During the day, however, when they are busier, it may work quite well. When the sun sets and the roads empty, there will be people on them that pay no mind to the numbers on the sign. In my opinion, lives won’t be saved until drivers are truly threatened by the consequences they face. Lives won’t be saved until every driver gets into their car thinking, ‘I can’t speed. I’ll lose my license, and I know the cameras are permanently placed everywhere.’
by