Irish Rail releases footage of motorists crashing through level crossings

Irish Rail has released a video showing a series of motorists driving through level crossings as they close.

While some of the motorists seem to be going too fast to stop in time, there are other incidents where drivers are taking a chance to go under the gates before they have fully descended.

Irish Rail spokesman, Barry Kenny, said there has been a significant rise in these incidents this year, with the Dart seeing the biggest increase.

Mr Kenny said: "There is more than sufficient warning before the barrier starts to descend, there's plenty of opportunity for the driver to slow down."

"It's an act of recklessness and impatience."

There have been 51 crashes at level crossings so far this year, 2014 saw 35 crashes, and five level crossings have been severely damaged in 2015.

In order to get the details of the drivers going through the level crossings, Iarnród Éireann are installing licence plate recognition cameras.

"We will pass this information on to the Garda and they will deal with the motorists from there."