There are fears that progress on road safety has stalled as the number of fatalities rose by 7% in the first half of 2019.
A review by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) and An Garda Síochána reports that 89 people died on Irish roads in 80 collisions between 1 January and 28 July 2019.
This represents 3% more collisions and 7% more deaths compared to provisional Garda data for the same period in 2018.
Five people lost their lives in Donegal collisions in the past six months.
The highest number of fatalities among all road users occurred in Dublin (9) followed by Tipperary (8) and Cork (7).
Ms. Moyagh Murdock, CEO, RSA said: “The figures released today are alarming. Clearly, the progress we have made in road safety over the last two years is at risk of stalling. The vast majority of deaths and injuries on our roads are preventable.
“If we want to prevent any more tragedies on our roads we need to focus our attention on where the greatest risk is. The review presented today shows that this is at weekends and particularly on a Sunday. We are asking road users take greater care at these times and we want to see more targeted enforcement by An Garda Siochána at weekends if we are to reverse this worrying increase in 2019,” Ms Murdock said.
Gardaí have also launched a new app today to improve road safety enforcement .
The app, which is expected to be rolled out across the country this year, will give Gardaí at the roadside access to critical information such as driver disqualifications, insurance and NCT compliance.