Ireland's surging road death figures are 'predominantly a male problem', according to Newstalk presenter Anton Savage.
He was speaking as new Road Safety Authority figures found that 82% of the people who have died on Irish roads this year were men.
Meanwhile, all 13 of the motorcyclists who died on the roads were men.
Road fatalities by county for January to July 2023. Source: RSAA look back at figures from previous years shows that (No italics on the bullet points):
- 83% of the cyclists who died between 2-16 and 2021 were men.
- 97% of the motorcyclists that died between 2016 and 2021 were men.
- 88% of the pedestrians that died between 2018 and 2015 were men.
Anton said the figures show road safety is a predominantly male issue.
"They give an interesting insight into how challenging an issue it is, and how multifactorial an issue it is," he said.
"If you look at the road deaths... it is easy to say it is a national problem [but] in actual fact it's a male problem.
"It's 82% male in the road deaths so far this year, and that's reflective in the last number of years.
"It is predominantly a male problem."
He said claims more men died because they 'drive faster than women' don’t stand up when you take the other categories into account.
Source: RSAAnton said the problem seems to be linked to gender behaviour.
"One-in-five of the people who were killed on our roads in the pedestrian category were either standing in the middle of the street or lying in the middle of the street," he said.
"It is easy to say there is a blanket response to this, but what we actually have is a set of behaviours linked to one gender.
"If we remove the men from the road safety issues, and I don't mean as pedestrians - I mean as pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists - you end up with almost no problem whatsoever.
"So, it is probably a more challenging issue and more linked to a gender set of behaviours, in every aspect of male life, than it is something that you can fix by changing a speed limit sign," he added.
