Speeding offences soar since start of pandemic

RSA chair Liz O’Donnell said that 2020 has “been hard enough a year already” without Christmas fatalities on the roads being added into the mixture. Picture: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie

Speeding offences in Ireland are up by more than a quarter since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The stark statistic was one of many offered at a briefing to promote road safety for the Christmas and new year period.

Speeding offences number 151,000 for 2020 to date, up 26% year on year from 2019’s figures.

It is impossible to pin that increase specifically on the multiple restrictions enacted due to Covid-19 until the data has been fully analysed, Assistant Garda Commissioner Paula Hillman told the briefing.

However, she said that Covid is “likely a factor”, due to there being more space on the roads. 

“There have been more opportunities to speed,” said Ms Hillman.

She added that arrests for intoxication, both alcohol and drug-related, are now more evenly spread across the week, as opposed to concentrated around the weekend, as was the case in pre-Covid times.

Road Safety Authority chair Liz O’Donnell said that 2020 has “been hard enough a year already” without Christmas fatalities on the roads being added into the mixture.

“Pubs may be closed, but people are still getting drink and getting into cars,” said Ms O'Donnell. 

“We’re appealing to people, don’t get into a car if you’ve been drinking. The following day, if you’ve been drinking all night, don’t get into a car.

“We know how Irish people celebrate Christmas. Drugs and drink are a disaster, let’s not have any more death this Christmas.”

The briefing heard that while alcohol detections in 2020 are significantly down on previous years, the same can not be said for other intoxicant offences.

Ms Hillman said that high traffic volumes have reduced across the year by between 20% and 70% due to the various lockdown measures put in place. However, while alcohol detections were down 25% year on year up to the end of June, drug detections were up 133% over the 12 month period to date with 2,537 people found to have been driving under such influence.

This may in part be attributable to the sheer volume of Garda checkpoints in place across the country due to the need to enforce the Covid restrictions. Ms Hillman said that in terms of tests, “it’s important to take all intoxicant detections as one”.

Meanwhile, Professor Denis Cusack, director of the Medical Bureau for Road Safety, said that the increase in testing seen in recent years is “astonishing, and a tribute to the gardaí”.

Testing for intoxicants has doubled since 2015, up from 3,077 that year to 6,125 thus far in 2020. In that time, alcohol tests have doubled, while toxicology tests are four times their 2015 levels.

Prof Cusack said it is “extraordinary” that testing has increased to such an extent despite the fact the country has gone through two separate lockdowns this year.

He said, however, that the heightened testing is “a sad reflection on the number of people out there risking their lives and the lives of others”.

“It’s sad that we have to go through this every year to remind all of us to be safe on our roads,” he said of the need for a dedicated safety campaign each Christmas.