Road safety: Multi-agency checkpoint 'about education as much as enforcement'

A multi-agency checkpoint on the M6 included  gardaí, Department of Social Protection, Revenue, RSA, and HSA. File picture: Colin Keegan

The man stands forlornly beside his pick-up truck and the trailer it was pulling before he was stopped.

His dog is still in the vehicle. He chats to the Garda traffic officer standing next to him, and stares at the enormous digger shovel he had been transporting.  “We’re just doing a deal on the side here,” he says amiably to another garda. He’s kept his good humour anyway.

He is, I’m reliably informed, in trouble on about 10 different counts. The tyres on the trailer are all bald as a coot. It doesn’t appear he’s licensed to pull a trailer of the size he was carrying. And there is no breakaway chain in place on the trailer — a safety feature to hold it in place should it break its moorings in transit.

Eventually, a recovery vehicle arrives and disappears with the pick-up truck. Fortunately, at the last minute, the driver realises that the dog is still inside the truck. The animal is not overjoyed at its forced exit.

Welcome to Thursday’s multi-agency checkpoint on the M6 motorway.

The various agencies present — the gardaí, the Department of Social Protection, the Revenue Commissioners, the Road Safety Authority, and the Health and Safety Authority — generally try to run one of these checkpoints on a couple of occasions each year.

This particular instance is happening amid a surge in road traffic fatalities which sees Ireland facing its worst year in terms of deaths on the roads since 2016. The local counties Westmeath and Meath are among the worst in terms of road traffic collisions, hence why the checkpoint is being staged here, close to the midlands town of Moate.

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The same morning the ministers for transport officially unveiled their plans to lower speed limits across the board on Irish roads to an extent not seen in generations. There’s a lot at stake on Ireland’s roads just now.

Each of the agencies present is coming at the checkpoint with their own agenda.

About a kilometre up the road a Garda jeep with an automatic number plate recognition reader (ANPR) is monitoring the westbound traffic coming from Dublin. If any vehicle is noted as having a tax or insurance issue, or if the driver is somebody known to gardaí, then the information gets radioed ahead to the checkpoint where the other officers will be waiting for them.

But most of those brought in to be checked are done so at random in groups of 20 vehicles at a time.  By 11am, two drivers have been arrested for suspected drug-driving. Around the layby, the persistent chirp of breathalysers is a constant. The gardaí will be here until 6pm — it’s a day-long endeavour.

One man is found to have two massive knives on his front seat. It turns out he has a hunting licence, and can legitimately carry a firearm to boot. The knives are supposed to be in his boot, but he is allowed to leave with a talking-to.

Further on, the RSA is checking trucks’ tyres and their drivers’ time cards (truck drivers are only allowed behind the wheel for nine hours per day, but it’s a system that is abused often, a fact one inspector ruefully tells us is unfortunate as unless they are caught in the act, it’s very difficult to prove). 

The Revenue officials, meanwhile, hop from vehicle to vehicle, checking the tanks for dodgy diesel. It's all about education as much as it is enforcement, says the officer in charge, Inspector Peter Gilsenan.

As the driver whose pick-up got impounded can attest, you’re better off staying on the right side of these checkpoints.