GARDAÍ HAVE BEGUN their bank holiday road policing operations, checking over 127,000 vehicles for speeding since yesterday morning.

Two people have died in two separate road traffic collisions in the last 24 hours.  

Beginning at 7am yesterday morning, Gardaí are out detecting poor driving behaviours such as driving above the speed limit as part of the October Bank Holiday road safety operation.

A total of 283 drivers have been detected so far. A number of drivers have been detected at dangerous speeds, including 146km/h in an 80km/h zone in Oranmore, Co Galway, and 157km/h in a 100km/h zone in Donegal.

Commenting on these detections, Chief Superintendent in the Garda National Roads Policing Bureau, Jane Humphries said, “Our October Bank Holiday roads policing operation has been underway since first thing Thursday morning and while we are generally seeing good levels of compliance with speed limits on roads around Ireland, I am gravely concerned by the risks taken by some drivers and the two fatal road traffic collisions.

“Please slow down and drive safely today and over the rest of the long weekend as so many of us take to the roads.”

New data from the RSA shows that there has been a sharp increase in the number of fatalities during the peak morning commuting time of 6.00am to 9.00am this year. By mid-October, there had been 19 deaths in 2024 between 6.00am and 9.00am, compared with 11 in the same period in 2023 and five in 2022.

With the clock going back one hour on Sunday 27 October, the RSA is advising drivers to slow down and look out for vulnerable road users, and for all roads users to be safe and be seen, particularly when travelling during the darker mornings and evenings.

A total of eight people were killed on the roads over the October Bank Holiday weekends between 2019 and 2023, and a further 71 were seriously injured.