Galway Gardai seizing 45 ‘souped-up’ cars per week

Gardaí in Galway are impounding as many as 45 ‘souped-up’ cars from ‘boy-racers’ every week, a senior officer has revealed.

Superintendent Pat McHugh said Galway Gardaí seize about 40 illegally modified cars every week in the wider city area and Gardaí in Tuam seize about four or five modified cars every week.

He said the seizures were part of a Garda crackdown on joyriding.

At a County Galway Joint Policing Committee public meeting in Tuam on Monday, Supt McHugh said joyriding was one of the “key priorities” of Chief Superintendent Tom Curley, who has ordered a crackdown on modified cars to tackle the problem.

Supt McHugh said joyriding is not the correct term because the activity was extremely dangerous to the driver and to other innocent road-users.

The types of modifications that young men in particular are making to their cars includes darkening windows, lowering the cars, widening tyres, alloy wheels, and modifying exhausts which gives cars more power and makes them sound louder.

He said many of the modifications are illegal and Gardaí can seize the cars.

For more on this story, see this week’s Connacht Tribune