Gardaí have launched a 48-hour nationwide blitz on traffic offences following the death of six people in road accidents last weekend and the rising number of suspected speeding and drink-driving incidents.
Special Garda units will patrol eight national roads and will enlist the assistance of a Garda helicopter to help monitor driving.
While gardaí will mostly be on the lookout for speeding and drink drivers, all traffic offences, including seatbelt compliance, will be targeted at checkpoints on routes from Dublin to Galway, Cork, Limerick and other major roads.
The crackdown begins in the wake of Garda figures released yesterday indicating that the number of people arrested on suspicion of drink driving over the May bank holiday was up almost 70 per cent compared with the same weekend last year.
A total of 310 drivers were arrested around the country for suspected drink driving that weekend compared with 185 for the same weekend in 2004.
The number of people detected speeding that weekend was also up considerably to 2,224. This compares with 1,896 during the 2004 May bank holiday.
The southern region had the highest number of detections, with 816 for alleged speeding and 69 for suspected drink driving.
The Dublin region was next highest with 367 speeding detections and 55 arrests for drink driving.
According to the National Safety Council (NSC), only hard-hitting media campaigns and greater Garda enforcement will convey the road safety message.
NSC chairman Eddie Shaw said yesterday a key part of its strategy was to tell "the truth as we know it with the facts as we have them".
"Our strategy is to win the moral argument, shape the climate of public opinion and build community support for enforcement," he said, adding that greater road safety was achieved through advertising and public awareness campaigns. A close working relationship between the NSC, gardaí, the National Roads Authority and local councils was also important.
Deaths on Irish roads have dropped from 50 per month in the 1970s to 32 a month in 2004, but so far this year 136 people have died on the State's roads, six more than for the same period last year. The NSC's aim is to reduce the total to 20 deaths per month, preventing 140 deaths and 1,000 serious injuries a year.
Meanwhile, a Co Wexford man who died in a road accident on the main Wexford to Rosslare road on Wednesday has been named. Thomas Murphy (54), of Piercetown, died after the car which he was driving collided with a lorry at Clonard.