Foreign Nationals' Road Death Toll Rises

The tragic death in hospital of a foreign national following a car crash in north Belfast this week has highlighted calls from across the border to focus on the number of accidents involving immigrants being experienced across the island of Ireland.

The woman who died was 21-year-old Dagmar Farkasova, who was from Bratislava in Slovakia.

Two others, a man and a woman, both aged 25, were also injured but are said to be in a stable condition. They are also thought to be from Eastern Europe.

The road between Ballysillan Drive and the Crumlin Road was closed for several hours at the time of the crash, but re-opened afterwards.

Four vehicles were involved in the accident at Ballysillan Park at about 4.45pm on Tuesday.

There have now been numerous fatal accidents involving foreign nationals across both NI and the Republic.

Earlier this year, the Chairman of the Irish Road Safety Authority, Irish TV personality, Gay Byrne, said that the group is working alongside gardaí to investigate claims of a drink driving culture among foreign nationals on Ireland's roads.

While there is no evidence that drink-driving was involved in this latest tragedy, there seems to be an overall road safety problem among foreigners.

Mr Byrne insisted that there are as many home-grown bad drivers, he said there are anecdotal stories about a prevalence of drink-driving among some nationalities.

He said: "There is some indication that with some of the other nationalities, that just as there is a culture of speed here, there is also a huge culture of speed and drink driving in those nationalities.

At the time, Mr Byrne was speaking after a weekend of road carnage in which seven people died, four of which were foreign nationals.

Meanwhile, NI Assembly Environment Minister Arlene Foster has also called for motorists and other road users to exercise extreme care at this time of year.

She said: "Winter brings particular dangers with frost, fog and wet or icy roads. Motorists, and in fact all road users, need to be especially careful just now."

Her advice comes as the latest figures showed that road deaths in January were up on both 2007 and 2006.

When the first week in February is added in, the increase over the same period last year is over 44%. She said that the figures were very worrying, especially as they followed the encouraging drop in road deaths in 2007.

The Minister said: "As far as children are concerned, the situation is particularly heart-breaking, with two children dead already compared with five in the whole of 2007."

The news coincides with a report from the police which shows that the number of 'R' drivers who had got penalty points in 2007 was four times as high as the figure for 2003.

The Minister added: "I welcome the fact that the police are detecting these offences but I am concerned that so many young drivers are ignoring the law and putting themselves and other road users at risk.

"Research shows that one in five newly qualified drivers will be involved in a collision within 12 months of passing the driving test and that driver inattention or careless driving is a key factor in many of the collisions."

See: Gardaí Probe 'Drink Drive Culture' Among Foreign Nationals.