LAST UPDATE | 11 Dec 2020

A DRIVER HAS been caught travelling at 40km/h on the N1 today, as gardaí check for motorists breaking speeds on Irish roads as part of ‘National Slow Down Day’.

The day is a collaboration between gardaí, the Road Safety Authority (RSA) and other agencies and is taking place from 7am today until 7am tomorrow.

Gardaí are hoping to alert drivers to the dangers of speeding, to increase compliance with speed limits and to act as a deterrent to driving at excessive or inappropriate speed.

Speed is deemed to be a contributory factor in about one-third of all fatal collisions, according to RSA analysis.

The objective of gardaí is to reduce the number of speed related collisions, to save lives and reduce injuries on Irish roads.

During the first nine hours of the day, gardaí and GoSafe checked the speed of 111,401 vehicles and detected 532 travelling in excess of the speed limit on the roads they were driving on.

Notable detections by gardaí so far today include:

• 140km/h in a 120km/h Zone on the M1 Balgatheran Drogheda Louth
• 137km/h in a 100km/h Zone on the N7 in Dublin
• 132km/h in a 100km/h Zone on the N4 Clongawny Mullingar Westmeath
• 123km/h in a 100km/h Zone on the N3 in Co Cavan
• 97km/h in a 50km/h Zone on the R680 Cork Road in Co Waterford
• 94km/h in a 50km/h Zone on the N20 Commons Road in Co Cork
• 91km/h in a 50km/h Zone on the N20 Kilknockan Mallow Cork
• 83km/h in a 50km/h Zone on the N6 Baile An Phoill in Co Galway

Despite Covid-19 restrictions being in place for much of the year, there have already been 137 road fatalities so far in 2020, an increase of nine on this date last year.

A total of 151,055 motorists were also caught speeding in the first ten months of the year, a 26% increase on same period in 2019.

During National Slow Down Day in May, GoSafe checked the speed of 126,001 vehicles with 1,072 detected travelling in over the speed limit.

Gardaí and the RSA appealed to drivers to increase their compliance with speed limits.