Police and safety experts' concern at sharp rise in number of road deaths in Northern Ireland

With several more road fatalities in the last week alone – including Katya Watson from Coleraine, Michael Scally from Ballycastle and Adam McAteer from Jordanstown – there have been 20 more deaths on NI’s roads this year compared to the same period in 2021.

A female pedestrian aged 20, who has not been identified, was also killed in Lisbellaw on Wednesday.

Katya Watson’s funeral will take place at 60 Ballycairn Road on Monday at 9.15am, with a 10am Requiem Mass in St John’s Church, Coleraine.

A notice on the funeraltimes.com website states: “Katya R.I.P. beloved daughter of Eamon and Angelique and loving sister of Gabriella, Francesca, Aurora and twin sister of Lucia.

"Cherished grand daughter of Jeff and Sadie Watson (Slaughtmanus) and Lorenzo Nargi (London) and the late Dolores Monaghan (Derrylin).”

The latest figures from the PSNI (up to December 15), show that 65 people have been killed on our roads since January 1, compared to 45 just two years ago.

Last year the figure, up to December 15, was 50, rising to a total of 55 by the end of the year.

The number of road deaths in Northern Ireland has not exceeded 60 in a calendar year since 63 were recorded in 2017.

In recent weeks, the head of road policing with the PSNI said that behind every one of those statistics there was a family that would never be the same again.

Chief Inspector Graham Dodds said having to inform a family that their loved one had died was one of the worst things a police officer will ever have to do.

"You watch a family shatter into a thousand pieces – you're destroying their world and you're watching someone breaking right in front of you," he told the BBC.

"You do feel a sense of guilt even though you haven't caused that incident, but because you will be forever associated with that awful moment in their lives," C/Insp Dodds added.

Earlier this week, a leading road safety organisation said there was a worrying upwards trend across the UK, while the European region has seen a 36% reduction in road fatalities.

David Walker of RoSPA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents), said: “We are seeing around 81 people killed or seriously injured on our roads every day, which is unacceptable and evidently linked to the dramatic lack of UK road safety progress over the last decade."