‘Get the simple things right’: Drivers urged to slow down over bank holiday

People are being warned to slow down and not be distracted on the roads during the bank holiday weekend.

Authorities have warned drivers to be aware of their behaviour amid a campaign to reduce deaths and injuries on Irish roads.

In the first 24 hours of a Garda checkpoint operation that began on Thursday morning, there have been 20 arrests for driving while under the influence of drink or drugs.

More than 200 drivers have been caught speeding out of over 200,000 vehicles checked.

Chief Superintendent Jane Humphries urged people to be vigilant, particularly on Friday which is the riskiest day for collisions on the last weekend in October.

Eight people have been killed and 71 people injured on the roads over October bank holiday weekends between 2019 and 2023.

She said the clocks go back an hour on Saturday night, which could see more socialising, and a change in the weather could cause difficult driving conditions.

“If you’re going out for a drink, please, please ensure that you have got a lift home. Whatever you do, do not go behind the wheel of your car intoxicated,” she said in Dublin on Friday.

“Every arrest that we make for drink or drug driving we are saving a life on the roads. We have prevented that person from going on ahead and causing a collision which could quite easily take their life or the life of somebody else.”

While people are often caught committing a combination of offences, the most common factors in collisions are speed and distraction, Ms Humphries said.

“We talk a lot about mobile phones, but it’s any type of distraction, it could be thinking about what we have to do when we get home, it could be looking at something else on the side of the road.

“If we get the simple things right we can save lives on the road,” she said.

There has been a greater focus on reducing road deaths after several crashes last year in which young people were killed.

There were 184 fatalities on Irish roads last year, up on previous figures.

So far this year, 143 people have been killed in road traffic collisions, which is down on 154 people killed during the same period last year.

The Road Safety Authority (RSA) said the number of fatalities during 6am to 9am, peak morning commuting time, had increased this year.

By mid-October, there had been 19 deaths between 6am and 9am, compared with 11 in the same period last year and five in 2022.

But Ms Humphries said that in general, there were “some small but very hopeful signs” that there is greater compliance with speed limits.

New average speed cameras on the N5, between Lislackagh and Cuilmore in Co Mayo, and the N3, between Kilduff and Billis in Co Cavan, are being introduced from today to help change people’s behaviour, she said.

“The cameras are not there to punish anybody, the cameras are there quite simply to save lives.”

Asked whether there should be aids to help remind drivers not to be distracted, she said: “I think if we start reminding people, we’re taking responsibility away from the driver and give the responsibility to some device.

“It’s the responsibility of the driver not to be distracted, it should not be the responsibility of the device that you’re being distracted.”