THE chances of being killed or badly injured in a road accident in some Irish counties are more than six times that of others.

An analysis of fatalities and serious injuries over the course of five years reveals that Longford is Ireland's most dangerous county when it comes to road deaths.

Figures from the Road Safety Authority (RSA) show that the number of fatal crashes per 1,000 people in that county is running at 0.94 between 2003 and 2007. Remarkably, the statistic is close to six times higher than that of the country's safest county, Dublin, where the rate is just 0.16.

During the five years of the study, a total of 1,808 people lost their lives on Irish roads and a further 4,674 were seriously injured.

Dublin was the safest county per capita on both counts with the lowest rate of death and the lowest rate of serious injury.

Gardaí attributed the relative safety of the capital's roads to the 50kph speed limit that applies on the majority of its roads.

One senior officer said: "There are two major factors; the low speed limits you have in urban areas and the amount of people using public transport."

Of major concern to road safety campaigners will be the fact that the rate of serious accident has no similarity to enforcement of penalty points.

Co Kildare, where the rate of penalty points is at its highest, boasts one of the lowest rates of serious injury in Ireland at 0.81 per 1000 people, behind only Dublin. In Co Donegal, another county where drivers are highly unlikely to pick up penalty points, the rate of serious injury is nearly treble that at 2.37. Road fatalities tended to be clustered around the Midlands, with Longford and Westmeath recording the highest per capita rate.

Fine Gael TD Fergus O'Dowd said: "The roads are obviously more dangerous in some of these areas and unfortunately... the government is cutting back on roads funding in rural areas and that should not be allowed to happen."

most fatalities in the republic

Fatalities Serious

per '000 injuries

per '000

Carlow 0.6 1.3

Dublin 0.16 0.52

Kildare 0.46 0.81

Kilkenny 0.45 1.17

Laois 0.68 1.94

Longford 0.94 2.03

Louth 0.6 1.47

Meath 0.62 1.29

Offaly 0.46 1.1

Westmeath 0.91 1.34

Wexford 0.68 1.77

Wicklow 0.4 1.18

Clare 0.45 1.09

Cork 0.34 1.05

Kerry 0.54 1.4

Limerick 0.43 1.17

Tipperary 0.64 1.07

Waterford 0.3 1.42

Galway 0.46 0.86

Leitrim 0.76 2

Mayo 0.44 1.26

Roscommon 0.54 1.81

Sligo 0.59 1.51

Cavan 0.78 2.83

Donegal 0.82 2.37

Monaghan 0.88 1.82

Average 0.42 1.10