Driving on wrong side of roads on increase

A senior garda says that a growing number of elderly people are driving the wrong way on motorways — sometimes with fatal consequences — and they need to be educated on how to deal with fast, modern highways.

Chief Superintendent Gerard Dillane made his comments just a few days after a man in his 80s drove for several kilometres on the wrong carriageway of the M8 between North Cork and South Tipperary before being stopped.

Chief Supt Dillane, who previously served five years as the head of the traffic corps in the Garda Southern Region, said it was very fortunate there were no fatalities as a result.