Publication of Road Safety issues in Northern Ireland, 2019/2020

The Road Safety Issues in Northern Ireland 2019/2020 report is now available.

This report, produced by the Analysis, Statistics and Research Branch (ASRB) of the Department for Infrastructure (DfI), presents findings from the 2019/2020 Continuous Household Survey (CHS).

The publication is available on the ASRB website at:

• Road safety issues in Northern Ireland

Key Points

• The majority of respondents (90%) correctly thought that the presence of street lights, generally means that the speed limit is 30 miles per hour.
• Almost three-fifths of all drivers (57%) reported that they used their phone in some capacity while driving. Approximately one in eight drivers admitted to texting and almost one in eleven admitted to making a hand held call while driving.
• The top 3 risks stated by respondents of using a mobile phone while driving were being more likely to cause a crash (94%), being more likely to be involved in a crash and being less likely to notice a danger ahead (both with 86%).
• Less than half (49%) of respondents believe that drivers were likely to be stopped by police for using their mobile phone while driving.  Over two thirds (69%) of respondents correctly identified that the police penalty for being caught was a fine plus penalty points. Almost three-fifths (59%) of those surveyed, however, believed that this penalty should be increased.

Notes to editors: 

1. The information presented in this publication derives from the 2019/2020 Continuous Household Survey (CHS) in relation to the attitudes, awareness and behaviours of respondents to specific road safety issues. The topics included perceived speed limits and mobile phone usage. The CHS is considered to be a representative sample of the population at household level.
2. The 2019/20 CHS was based on a random sample of 9,000 domestic addresses drawn from the NISRA Address Register and interviews were sought with all adults aged 16 and over in these households with the final dataset containing the records for 2,962 adults. These people were asked questions relating perceived speed limits where street lights are present and mobile phone usage, and 2,953 adults provided a response to at least one of the questions.
3. The Department for Infrastructure (DfI) and its Road Safety Partners are committed to promoting improved road safety, and to deliver better regulation of the transport sector. ASRB undertakes an annual programme of research and statistical investigations into road safety problems in Northern Ireland, developed and implemented in collaboration with Road Safety policy side. The results from this report form part of that research programme.
4. Other Road Safety research produced can be found at: Road safety research. Additional Road Safety statistics including the Road Safety Strategy Annual Monitoring Report can be found at: Road safety statistics.

Official Statistics

1. This is an Official Statistics publication and therefore follows the Code of Practice for Statistics.  You can find further information about the Code of Practice at: Statistics Authority.

Further Information

For further information please contact:

• Tel (press enquiries): 028 9054 0007
• Tel (public enquiries): 028 9054 0029 (Text relay prefix 18001)
• E-mail: ASRB@nisra.gov.uk
• Website: Statistics and research

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