Although the deaths of two men in an accident near Bohola, Co Mayo, in the early hours of yesterday morning bring the numbers killed this month to 20, the total for the whole of January last year was 40.

With just three days to go until the end of the month, the Road Safety Authority (RSA) is now confident that this will be one of the best months in recent years for traffic fatality rates.

There was a similar drop in road deaths when penalty points were first introduced in 2002. Road deaths fell by just under 20% in the following two years, but then rose again for two years after.

According to Noel Brett, the chief executive of the RSA, the increase occurred because "that culture shift was not sustained". This time, the RSA is hopeful that this latest drop in road deaths will be a permanent one, with a correspondingly low arrest rate in 2007 for road traffic offences.

A new road safety strategy will be submitted to the minister for transport from the Road Safety Authority in March, Brett confirmed. The new strategy will run for five years until 2011 and is being drawn up in the wake of one of the lowest annual tolls for road deaths in the state. Last year saw 368 people die on our roads, the second lowest toll since 1963.