Traffic corps gets boost of 200 extra gardaí

EXTRA traffic corps units are to be created in Cork, Kerry and Limerick with an additional 200 gardaí, the first of whom will come on stream on September 9.

A total of 23 new traffic corps members will be dispatched to units in the region early next month. But senior gardaí have confirmed that they are working towards more than doubling the corps’ strength by 2008.

Last year there were24 dedicated traffic corps officers in the Cork City garda division. This will jump to 59 by 2008. The increase in north Cork will be from 16 to 41 and from 12 to 30 in West Cork.

The number in Kerry and Limerick will rise from 14 to 35 in each county.

Assistant Commissioner Ray McAndrew is understood to have left the decision on where to deploy the extra resources to chief superintendents in each of the five garda divisions. It is further understood that new units will be set up in some areas, especially in the larger towns to enable gardaí to provide a far wider coverage in the battle to make the region’s roads safer.

Inspector Billy Duane, who is the man in charge of the regional traffic corps, which covers the three counties, said yesterday that in addition to the increased manpower more vehicles will be allocated to divisional officers — including jeeps, cars and motorcycles.

“We will have covert unmarked and marked vehicles and there will also be more use of camera vehicles — Gatso vans,” Inspector Duane said.

Meanwhile, Garda commissioner Noel Conroy has ordered even more intensive mandatory breath-testing checkpoints to be set up in the region over the next four weekends.

Inspector Duane said these checkpoints are already having an impact and arrests were being made in the morning of people who had been drinking the night before and hadn’t given themselves time for their alcohol levels to drop below the legal limit.

“A lot more people are being arrested this year compared to last year, and we expect the number to rise even more with these checkpoints,” the inspector said.

Already the number of people arrested so far this year is up 21% on the same period in 2005. Inspector Duane said the traffic corps target had been to make a 15% increase in detections, so they are already well ahead of that.

He added that as children prepare to go back to school and the evenings get darker it is important drivers and pedestrians adjust to different weather conditions, especially as there can be a rise in serious accidents in the autumn.

“Motorists should check their lights and tyres are in proper order. They should slow down in wet conditions and it’s important that pedestrians, cyclists and those on motorcycles wear high visibility [reflective] jackets,” said the Inspector.