Impatient motorists are driven to distraction

A GROWING sense of impatience among some drivers leading to poor judgment calls is contributing to an increasing number of road accidents, according to a senior Garda in the West.

Chief Supt. Tom Curley said that Gardai had noted a growing sense of impatience among some drivers that often led to them taking unnecessary risks.

“As drivers, we all need to calm down a bit. When you’re on the road there will be slow-downs and stoppages and the idea is not to get worked up over these when you’re behind the wheel.

“A little bit of patience and a little bit of road manners would be a great help from everyone and it would also be an important first step in helping drivers to slow down.

“It has been said time and time again that if all road users slowed down – and especially those who are in the habit of driving a little faster – this would be the single biggest influence in terms of reducing fatalities and injuries on our road network,” said Chief Supt. Curley.

He said that so far in 2017, there were six road fatalities on Galway’s road as compared to ten in 2016 but the aim was always to try and get that figure down to zero.

Gardai had been involved in the detection of 1,128 speeding offences in Galway in 2017 while Chief Supt. Curley said that it was also very frustrating to see drivers on mobile phones behind the wheel.

“Apart from detections, there really has to be an element of common-sense in all of this. Surely the penny has to drop that holding a phone in one hand and still trying to drive is highly dangerous and irresponsible,” he said.

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