The Garda Siochana is to step up its road safety programme in advance of the August holiday weekend. More than 4,000 checkpoints will be set up to monitor driving standards, as well as to check the roadworthiness of private and commercial vehicles.
Operation Belt Up will focus on seat-belt infringements. Operation Check Up will involve examination of vehicles, including tyres, lights and brakes. Operation Juggernaut will focus on goods vehicles. Operation Fare will focus on taxis, buses and coaches.
Announcing the initiative yesterday, Chief Supt Al McHugh, of the Garda Traffic Policy Unit, said the aim was to improve driver behaviour and the standard of vehicles. On-the-spot fines ranging from £20 to £50 will be imposed on drivers where vehicles are found to be in breach of traffic laws.
Most of the offences, such as failure to wear seat belts, driving with defective tyres or driving in a bus lane, incur fines of £20. Traffic-light infringements and failing to observe Yield and Stop signs incur fines of £50.
The new initiatives supplement Operation Lifesaver, which will continue to monitor speeding drivers.
Chief Supt McHugh said the new initiatives complemented the measures introduced over the past two years by the Garda as part of Operation Lifesaver.
An estimated 300,000 on-the-spot fines have already been levied through the increased Garda traffic activity, and there has been a reduction in road deaths since Operation Lifesaver was introduced nationally.
In the first six months of 1998 there were 205 road deaths and in the first six months of this year 194.
The system of on-the-spot fining may have raised as much as £15 million in revenue since it was introduced nationally two years ago. The initiatives announced yesterday, with gardai increasingly targeting motorists not wearing belts and vehicles in poor condition for on-the-spot fines, are expected to increase again the revenue from fines.
The Government is committed to reducing road deaths in the Republic by 20 per cent from the start of last year to the end of 2002 under an EU directive issued in 1997 by the then EU transport commissioner, Mr Neil Kinnock.
Chief Supt McHugh said drivers and passengers still continued to ignore warnings about wearing seat belts despite the fact that it had been clearly shown that people not wearing belts increased their chances of death or serious injury in accidents by 50 per cent.
"Drivers and passengers are still inclined not to wear belts. There has been an extension of on-the-spot fines to this, and from this week on there will be fines on the spot for motorists refusing to wear seat belts."
The new initiatives also sought to improve the conditions of road haulage vehicles. The chief superintendent said the Garda Traffic Branch had recently carried out a survey of heavy goods vehicles.
"In evaluating the findings, it would appear there is a significant amount of non-compliance among sections of the road haulage industry, certain parts of it where standards for heavy goods licences are not reaching safety standards," he said.