Gardaí in County Louth will conduct a national speed enforcement operation “Slow Down”, supported by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) and other stakeholders, for a 24-hour period starting at 7am this Friday 26th March.
There were 137 fatal collisions resulting in 148 fatalities on Irish roads during 2020, nine of which occurred in County Louth.
The aim of “Slow Down day” is to remind drivers of the dangers of speeding, to increase compliance with speed limits and act as a deterrent to driving at excessive or inappropriate speed. The overall objective is to reduce the number of speed-related collisions, save lives and reduce injuries on our roads.
During the 24-hour period of the previous operation ‘Slow Down’ which took place in December 2020, a total of 892 vehicles were detected travelling over the speed limit.
Latest figures show that the number of people caught speeding on Irish roads in 2020 increased by 26% compared to the previous year with 181,187 motorists recorded speeding over the 12-month period.
Adrian O’Sullivan, Road Safety Officer with Louth County Council said: “Although the number of deaths on are roads is down on the same period in 2020, so far this year 20 people have been killed on Irish roads, consisting of 14 drivers, (one of whom was in County Louth), 2 motorcyclists, 2 pedestrians and one passenger.”
The Road Safety Officer added “Excessive and inappropriate speed is a major contributory factor in road traffic collisions, the higher the speed, the greater the likelihood is of a collision happening and the more severe the outcome of that collision. Despite reduced volumes of traffic on our roads the levels of speed have increased.”
As a general rule a 1% reduction in average speed will bring about a 4% reduction in fatal collisions. Nationally the operation will consist of high visibility speed enforcement in 1,322 speed enforcement zones from 7am on Friday morning to 7am on Saturday morning.
