Members of An Garda Síochána and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) have for the first time carried out a joint “day of action” aimed at reducing the number of people being killed on the roads on both sides of the Border.
The number of road fatalities so far this year have already surpassed the total for last year in both jurisdictions.
A total of 168 people have lost their lives in fatal collisions in the Republic so far this year, more than the 155 people killed in all of last year. In Northern Ireland, 57 people have died so far this year, compared to 56 for the whole of last year.
Garda and PSNI officers mounted a joint checkpoint on the Border between Derry City and Bridgend, Co Donegal on Thursday. Other checkpoints were in operation both North and South as part of a National Slow Down Day, which targets speeding drivers.
Speaking at the cross-Border checkpoint, Garda Supt David Kelly said it was taking place “throughout the island of Ireland to encourage safe behaviour on our roads and keep people safe”.
“We’re concentrating on the lifesaver offences – drink driving, drug driving, speeding, not wearing seat belts, and the use of electronic devices while driving,” he said.
“We’re doing that in conjunction with the PSNI who are targeting similar offences, again for the same reason, the high number of fatalities on our roads. We want to try and encourage people to drive safely so we have no more fatalities on our roads between now and Christmas.”
Supt Kelly said the aim was to “reassure the public by our presence” and “make people think about their driving – why they’re making the journey, allow enough time to make the journey, and the key is to arrive alive”.
He added: “We’re being visible today to remind people to take their time, to remind people to do what’s appropriate on the road, not to drink, wear their seat belts, don’t speed, don’t be on electronic devices.”
He emphasised that a “community approach” was also needed, particularly in large, rural counties such as Donegal.
“I always go back to when my Dad first gave me his car ... I got the keys and he took me outside the house and he pointed over where the neighbours houses were and he said, ‘you’re driving that car, you do anything wrong, the neighbour’s will tell me before the guards will tell me, and you’ll deal with me before you’ll deal with the guards’,” he said.
“I thought that was good advice, and that’s the way it was, the people in the community would pick up the phone or they would tell a parent that their son or daughter was misbehaving in a car. We need that as well, because no matter what we do, we can’t have a Guard on every road every hour of the day.”
Chief Insp Graham Dodds, the PSNI’s head of road policing, said that on both sides of the Border speeding was a “massive threat to the safety of communities across the island of Ireland, so we are taking a strategic look at it and we’re going to make sure people are aware you can’t get away with it anywhere in Ireland.
“We’ll try and educate people but, moving forward, we will be having operations where the education approach will not be there, it will be prosecution, prosecution, prosecution, and this will cost you money, or possibly put you in jail, it’ll affect your insurance, but that’s nothing compared to the pain that’s inflicted on families.
“Coming up to Christmas, do you really want to take a risk, be a poor driver, and end up this Christmas and there’s an empty sat at the table?”
