Police statistics have revealed that more young men have lost their lives on local roads in the past year.
Figures from April 2016 to February of this year reveal that in the Fermanagh and Omagh District, there were ten fatalities. Of these all were male, with five in the 16-34 age category.
Four older men aged 65 and over were also killed as a result of road collisions in the district. Five of the fatalities involved drivers while three passengers were killed and one pedestrian.
2016 was when a number of people – including a young quad driver and an elderly GAA fan – lost their lives on local roads as the number of road fatalities and those seriously injured has increased.
In a report released by the PSNI, it stated “the largest increase in killed or seriously injured people was in the Fermanagh and Omagh District which increased their number by more than half from 50 recorded between January and October 2015 to 78 this year.”
Among them was 25-year-old Kristaps Smilskalns, who was involved in a two vehicle car crash on the Derrygonnelly Road, Enniskillen on October 15th. Patrick James (Packie) McGeough from Co Monaghan died following a two car crash near Newtownbutler on September 3rd while 24 year-old Keith Robinson, was also killed in a quad bike accident near Fivemiletown on Sunday July 10th.
Although in the North as a whole, provisional figures released by the PSNI show that the number of road deaths for 2016 was 68. This figure has decreased from 74 in 2015 and 79 in 2014. Among those who died were four children, three of whom were pedestrians, while 32 drivers lost their lives throughout 2016.
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