The number of speeding offences in Galway city has risen, according to a Garda report, for the first 10 months of 2020.
The report which was circulated by Chief Superintendent Tom Curley to members of the city’s JPC over Zoom on Monday showed that there were 5,712 speeding offences recorded in the city for 2020 as opposed to 2,348 for the same period in 2019, an increase of 143 per cent.
Galway West TD Mairéad Farrell described the increase as “astonishing” as it took place during a lockdown when members of the public were supposed to be confined to areas of no more than 2km and 5km from their properties.
Fine Gael councillor Eddie Hoare said the headline issue from the report was speeding and questioned the gardai’s response to the Galway City Council’s decision to reject new speeding bye-laws whereby a speed limit reduction to 30 kilometres per hour was also being sought for areas in the inner city – including the Claddagh, Bohermore, and Newcastle.
Lockdown resulted in less traffic
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In response to the councillors’ comments Chief Supt Curley said one of the reasons for the increase for speeding was down to the fact there was less traffic on the road due to the lockdown.
“There is less traffic on our roads and if there is less traffic on our roads, people have a free road in front of them and instead of doing 30, they are going to be doing 50 or 60.”
He also said the gardai only recommend speeding bye-laws and have no influence on whether the local authority adopts them or not.
Other statistics relating to road offences showed that excluding speeding offences recorded, there was an overall 52 per cent decrease of incidents recorded in the year to date compared to 2019.
There were no deaths on city roads between January and October this year but 12 incidents of serious injury caused by a road accident were recorded, an increase of 33 per cent from the same period last year.
