Familiar roads can hide their own risks because routine makes awkward junctions, short merges and poor sightlines feel normal. The RSA’s interactive map of road traffic injury collisions across Ireland uses Garda collision data to show where injury crashes cluster, giving drivers a clearer way to spot higher-risk stretches before they become a surprise.
Read the pattern
Start with the routes you use most, then narrow down to the parts that usually demand the most attention: approaches to junctions, bends, roundabouts and short sections where traffic speed or road position changes quickly. A genuine hotspot is less about one isolated point and more about a concentration of injury collisions in a small area.
The useful step is to match what the map shows with the road layout you already know. If several collisions sit around a turning point, a merge, a lane reduction or a place with restricted visibility, treat the whole section as one problem area rather than focusing on a single marker.
Use it properly
The map cannot explain the cause of each collision, and it cannot tell you exactly what will happen on your next trip. What it can do is help you make better choices on familiar roads: slow the pace earlier, leave more space, simplify your positioning and avoid being rushed through sections that already have a poor record.
It also helps to read the data with some caution. RSA work on serious cycling injuries has combined Garda collision records with hospital admissions data, which is a reminder that one dataset does not capture every risk. For drivers, that means using the map to identify recurring trouble spots, not to assume it tells the full story of every road.