Road death toll not telling full story, top garda warns

Cavan has already recorded seven road deaths in 2026 - the highest number in the county in 14 years, prompting one senior garda to warn the devastating toll to date may not even tell the full story.

The seven fatalities recorded so far this year have put Cavan on course for it to be one of the deadliest years on the local roads since 2012, when 10 people lost their lives.

With almost four months of 2026 still remaining, the current toll has already eclipsed the number of people killed on Cavan roads every year since.

The figure is particularly stark compared with last year when only two people died on Cavan crashes during the entire 2025.

Cavan Garda Superintendent Gavin O’Reilly believes the picture could have been even more grim, pointing to the rising number of serious collisions in which motorists and passengers suffered significant injuries that were, in some cases, almost fatal.

His remarks come as gardaí prepare to increase the number of Mandatory Intoxicant Testing (MIT) checkpoints across the county approaching the darker evenings and worsening conditions.

Motorists can expect a change in tactics too, with gardaí planning to make the locations less predictable.

“We will become more unpredictable in where we will be setting up our checkpoints,” Supt O’Reilly confirmed.

The senior officer also revealed a worrying development in the type of impaired driving being detected, saying the number of motorists being caught driving under the influence of drink or drugs is now broadly “equal”.

“That’s a real concern, and sometimes it’s a mixture of both,” he told the Celt.

Supt O’Reilly says Gardaí are increasingly encountering collisions in which dangerous decisions behind the wheel are having increasingly devastating consequences.

The issue extends beyond the misuse of drink and drugs, with speed also playing a major role.

“I'm including using drink and drugs as driver behaviour, but speed as well is another major causation factor. We're seeing accidents, with serious outcomes, happening where people are taking chances.”

The Superintendent also stressed that dangerous driving is not confined to one age group, with offenders being detected “across a range of demographics”.

The deaths of James and Noreen McHugh in a collision on the N3 at Drummallaght, near New Inns, between Virginia and Cavan, on August 10 were the county's sixth and seventh fatalities.

Their deaths followed a succession of tragedy during the summer. In late July, Nell Raven and her 10-year-old daughter Ira were killed in a collision involving a van near Shercock.

Earlier that same month, publican Patsy McKenna (79), proprietor of Nobby's in Corgreagh, Kill, near Cootehill, died in a single-vehicle motorcycle collision at Drumsillagh, Tullyvin.

The year had already claimed the lives of two men in separate collisions.

In early May, 34-year-old father-of-three Tommy Reilly, from Drumavaddy, died in a collision at Ardkill Beg, Carrickaboy, while travelling to a nearby charity tractor run, and before that, David McBride, a father of six from Castlebellingham, was killed while delivering newspapers near Shercock in February.

The current toll represents a sharp reversal of the relatively low number of fatalities recorded in recent years.

The number of deaths on Cavan roads so far this year is more than the previous two years combined.