An Garda Síochána has announced details of a new national road safety enforcement operation that will target driver behaviour for the remainder of 2021.
Operation Teorainn will be mounted nationwide and focus on the four ‘lifesaver offences’ (speeding, driving while intoxicated, non-seatbelt wearing, and mobile phones ), as well as unaccompanied driving by learner drivers, plus road transport offences. Rural roads with limits of 80 km/h and over are also to be targeted.
The joint road safety drive comes after a bad summer for road safety this year, particularly August which recorded the highest number of monthly fatalities (24 ) since June 2012 (26 ). The number of deaths overall this year at 110 is a cause for concern, but particularly the number of driver deaths. There has been a 19 per cent increase in the number of drivers killed (57 ) this year compared to the number of drivers killed (48 ) up to the same period in 2020.
In 2021 78 per cent of fatalities have occurred on rural roads with a speed limit of 80km/h or above which will be a particular focus of Operation Teorainn.
With just two and a half months remaining in 2021 An Garda Síochána and the Road Safety Authority are calling on road users, and particularly drivers, to make a greater effort to stay safe on the road. Thirty three people were killed in the final three months of last year.
To date in 2021, a total of 111 lives have been lost on the road in 100 fatal collisions. This is 10 less fatalities and 10 less fatal collisions than at the same date last year.
Note that that statistics are at the time of writing and change regularly.
