Kildare Ranks Among Top Counties For Pedestrian Injuries In Road Traffic Collisions

Tuesday, 8 October 2024 12:25

By Martin Osborne

A quarter of hospitalised pedestrians nationally were aged 65 years and older, and 17% were aged 14 years or less.

Kildare is among the top five counties for pedestrians admitted to hospital with injuries from road traffic collisions.

The latest RSA report, which covers the years 2014 to 2023, shows that there were 2,843 pedestrians admitted to hospital as in-patients with injuries from road traffic collisions during the ten-year period, slightly more than the Garda-reported figure of 2,528 seriously injured pedestrians.

Seven people have died on roads in Kildare so far this year.

The report found that a quarter of hospitalised pedestrians nationally were aged 65 years and older, and 17% were aged 14 years or less.

Most hospitalised pedestrians were males (59%), and residents of County Dublin (34%), followed by Cork, Limerick, Meath and Kildare.

In Kildare, the figure for pedestrians admitted to hospital is 4%.

Nationally, 40% of hospitalised pedestrians sustained at least one injury to the head, and just over half sustained at least one injury in the lower limbs (52%).

They spent an average of 10 days in hospital as in-patients.

28% of all hospitalised pedestrians sustained the most serious injuries from a clinical point of view, with a higher probability of having long-term consequences.