Galway Gardaí urge caution for a safe Christmas on the roads

SLOW down . . . no booze . . . and no ‘mobile’ chatter . . . these are some of the key messages from Galway Gardaí this Christmas, as they strive for a ‘clean sheet’ in terms of road fatalities over the festive season.

So far this year, 28 people have lost their lives in road accidents through the western Garda division of Galway, Mayo, Clare, Roscommon and Longford.

Five of those who died this year were from Galway while Mayo, with ten deaths, had the highest road mortality rate in the West, according to the latest Garda figures released this week.

Despite all the warnings, Gardaí have again said this week that many drivers still continue to speed, drive with drink in their system, don’t wear their seatbelts and use hand-held mobile phones while behind the wheel.

Over a two day mobile phone blitz carried out by Gardaí in early December, there were 139 drivers detected in Galway using hand-held mobile phones.

“The detection results show that people are continuing to use mobile phones while driving despite repeated warnings. Therefore our targeted enforcement operations in this and other areas will continue right across the Christmas and New Year period,” said Supt. Pat Murray, Regional Traffic Superintendent for the West.

He said that every day over the holiday period there would be at least 60 checkpoints carried out across the western Garda region with some of the drink driving tests being conducted in the morning period.

“If people are out late and consuming alcohol, then there is no way that they should drive the following morning. It’s just as dangerous to have high alcohol levels in the morning as it is at night – and with tiredness also coming into play, it can be even more hazardous to drive the ‘morning after’,” a Garda spokesman told The Connacht Tribune.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.