What's the news?
It's bad news for tourists I'm afraid. If you're used to driving on the right, and you're here renting a car, then you're twice as likely to be involved in a shunt. The data comes from a survey by car rental company Sixt, which was taken the unusual route of pointing out that its customers are something of a menace on the road. Sort of.
According to Sixt's data, renters from the USA account for 16 per cent of rental days yet they were involved in 35 per cent of recorded accidents involving rental cars. Renters from Australia, used to driving on the same side of the road as us, accounted for five per cent of rentals and five per cent of accidents.
As a result of this research, Sixt Rent a Car Ireland has implemented a major Road Safety Programme. The Programme is primarily a driver education programme, backed with in-vehicle prompting, which is largely aimed at drivers who do not normally drive on the left, explains Trevor Toner, Operations Director Sixt Rent a Car Ireland.
"The programme has been a spectacular road safety success. In a period of over 250,000 days, the Sixt safety programme has resulted in a welcome and unprecedented decrease in accidents and serious injuries. In fact, the frequency of serious claims per 100,000 rental days has declined from over 6 per cent in 2014 to below 3 per cent in 2015", says Toner, who also pointed out that the findings of the survey have been confirmed by Zurich one of the world's major car insurance companies.
"The success of the Sixt Road Safety Programme is such that it has attracted world-wide interest, even from as far away as the New Zealand Department of Transport.
"The Sixt Road Safety Programme ensures meticulous safety checks of every vehicle during the preparation procedure before every single rental transaction. The Sixt Road Safety Programme also places a large emphasis on driver education at a number of key points during the rental cycle. In particular, every high risk driver must review a six point safety card with his or her rental agent as part of the rental process."