NI faces 'road safety emergency' after five deaths

Northern Ireland is facing a "road safety emergency" after five deaths in the past 10 days, according to a senior police officer.

The number of fatalities is already the same as for the whole of January 2013.

Supt David Moore said: "We've had someone dying on our roads every 48 hours in the early days of 2014.

"That's a month's worth of carnage in a little over a week and five families torn apart."

In the latest incident, a 58-year-old man died in a collision with a car in south Armagh on Friday.

On the same day, a 22-year-old Dunmurry man was killed after the stolen car he was driving was involved in a collision with a van on the outskirts of south Belfast.

'Collective efforts'

Supt Moore said that Northern Ireland's road safety new year resolution was "broken already".

He said the police would re-double its focus on road safety adding: "This road safety emergency is the responsibility of everybody who enters a road way, whether on four wheels, on two wheels or on foot.

"Five deaths already is far too much and we need the collective efforts of everyone in Northern Ireland to bring this to an end now."

In Armagh, Catholic Archbishop Eamon Martin has used Masses to urge parishioners to take extra care on the roads.

"We all have a responsibility to exercise care and attention on the roads," he said.

"If all of us made a late new year's resolution to improve our use of the roads, whether that be as drivers, pedestrians or cyclists, then some families will be spared the terrible anguish of losing a loved one this year."