Gardaí have expressed serious concern over a rise in road deaths in the west over the past two years which runs contrary to the downward trend nationally.

Assistant Commissioner John O’Mahoney of the Garda National Traffic Bureau said in Oranmore yesterday that single-vehicle crashes involving male drivers in random locations constituted the largest number of fatalities in the region last year.

About  20 per cent of drivers killed on roads in the Garda Western Region (comprising Mayo, Roscommon/Longford, Galway and Clare) had not been wearing seatbelts. Overall deaths in the region have risen from a low in 2010. Of the 35 deaths on Irish roads so far this year, 13 were in the west and seven were in the Galway area.

The Assistant Commissioner sympathised with the grief of families of 186 victims who died on roads across the State in 2011, and said “too many lives” had been lost, while “too many families have suffered”.

Speeding in 80km/h and 100km/h zones had been identified as a major factor in fatalities in the west, while lack of seatbelt use had occurred in front and back seats of vehicles.

Pedestrians on unlit or poorly lit roads were at higher risk, while there had been a significant number of incidents involving motorcyclists.

The number of people killed on Irish roads has been decreasing since 2005, with fewer than 200 people dying in 2011 – the lowest figure since records began in 1959.

In the west, collisions in which a person died fell from 50 in 2007 to 26 in 2010, but began rising again last year with 31 deaths.