Gardaí to install 61 new speed cameras across the country
Kenneth Fox
Gardaí have announced that a further 61 new speed cameras will be in use from next Tuesday, July 26th.
This will bring the total number of cameras nationwide up to 1,373.
The announcement comes as in 2022, there have been 89 road deaths an increase of 28 over 2021 and 13 to date in 2019.
The primary purpose of safety cameras is to reduce speed-related collisions, lessen injuries and save lives, Gardaí said in a statement.
They said safety cameras operate in areas where there is a history of speed related collisions known as speed enforcement zones.
There have also been than 2.2 million speeding tickets issued since introduction of safety cameras.
An Garda Síochána said they completed an updated collision analysis of the road network based on recent available collision statistics.
New locations for cameras were selected following an analysis of the data acquired from fatal, serious and minor road traffic collisions and from further consideration given to locations of concern highlighted by local communities.
The new zones are spread across 23 counties, 49 per cent on Regional Routes, 31 per cent National Routes and 20 per cent on other routes.
Speaking about the news, Superintendent Thomas Murphy, Garda National Roads Policing Bureau said: "When someone decides to speed they put themselves and of their community at risk, particularly children, older people, cyclists and other motorists.
"Our priority is to ensure that the vast majority of people who use the roads responsibly are not put in danger by a minority of reckless drivers who continue to drive at excessive speed."
He said the deployment of safety cameras has been proven to save lives and is calling on every road to play their part to make the roads safer for all.
"Since 2010, An Garda Síochána has contributed to making our roads safer through the use of safety cameras, using a service provider ‘GoSafe’ to operate them on its behalf. The cameras are operated using a fleet of marked vehicles.
"Road deaths have decreased from 415 in 2000 to 137 in 2021. This shows a dramatic reduction in of risk and a huge increase in of road safety," he said.
Mr Murphy said speed camera zones are identified high risk locations and can include school safety zones, community engagement request zones and road works safety zones.
