Ireland is now ranked the 10th safest country out of 27 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries worldwide.

 
The report published by the OECD, looks at the road safety performance of 27 countries around the world in 2008, participating in its International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD) and also examines the longer-term trends in each country.
 
In its ‘Country Report’ for Ireland, the report states that:
·    There was a 17% decrease in road fatalities in 2008 compared to 2007
·    Fatalities decreased by 30% between 2005 and 2008
·    Between 1970 and 2008, the number of road fatalities decreased by 48%. In the same period, the number of vehicles on the roads quadrupled.
·    Since 2000, the risk of being involved in a fatal collision has almost halved.
 
However the report also highlighted the fact that young people are still a high-risk group in Ireland, with a fatality risk three times higher than that of the general population. For a motorcyclist, the risk of dying in a traffic crash per kilometres travelled is about 23 times higher than that for a car occupant.
 
Measured in terms of road deaths per 100,000, the safest country out of the 27 participating countries is Iceland, with 3.81 deaths. The worst is Greece with 14.43 deaths.