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One person dying every five days in NI road 'carnage', say police

Claire GrahamBBC News NI
BBC Ch Supt Norman Haslett is standing on the side of a road. He is wearing a PSNI cap and a yellow high viz jacket with a body vest. There's a walkie-talkie attacked to his vest. He has medals on his lapels. Fields are in the background. Some cars are passing. A tripod with a camera attached is to his side. BBC
Ch Supt Norman Haslett urged drivers to think about their behaviour on the roads

The scale of fatalities on roads in Northern Ireland has been described by a senior police officer as "carnage".

The number of people who have died in crashes so far this year has reached 42.

Ch Supt Norman Haslett said that would mean around one person has died every five days.

The figure is a sharp increase on last year, when up until the same date 27 people had lost their lives on the roads. During the same period in 2024, there were 35 fatalities.

A day of action, involving Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) checkpoints and road surveillance took place on Tuesday across border counties.

That included the PSNI's south area which is comprised of the policing districts of Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon, Fermanagh and Omagh, Mid Ulster and Newry, Mourne and Down.

While BBC News NI was filming at a PSNI checkpoint close to the border on the Cullaville Road, Crossmaglen, a car which was stopped and searched was found to have a stash of suspected cannabis.

Police also revealed on Tuesday that a driver was recently arrested in the south area for speeding at 140mph while not wearing a seatbelt.

'Can't arrest our way out of fatalities'

A close up of an officer's hand holding a small metal container.
During filming, a car which was stopped and searched was found to have a stash of suspected cannabis

Haslett called the statistics appalling and described the devastation to family and friends as immeasurable.

"I don't use the word carnage lightly," he said.

"Once every five days, police officers are knocking on doors of homes to tell people that their loved ones aren't coming home."

The chief superintendent also said that if 42 people died in other circumstances there would be "public outcry".

"Clearly people aren't listening," he said, adding: "We can't arrest our way out of fatalities."

Nearly half of the road deaths this year happened in the south area.

Haslett urged drivers to "think about their own behaviour, their safety and the safety of others on the road".

"People using drugs and driving should never be normal, even if police discovering substances has become normalised."

Speaking about the 140mph incident, Haslett called it "frightening" and said the force are seeing these speeds "quite frequently".