Gardaí will be out in force today to make drivers reduce their speed over the holiday period.
Operation “Slow Down”, supported by the Road Safety Authority and other stakeholders, runs for a 24 hour period from 7am on Friday 23rd December to 7am on Saturday 24th December.
The operation will consist of high visibility speed enforcement in over 1,000 speed enforcement zones.
In the run up to Christmas, gardaí aim to remind drivers of the dangers of speeding, to increase compliance with speed limits and act as a deterrent to driving at excessive or inappropriate speed.
The overall objective is to reduce the number of speed related collisions, save lives and reduce injuries on our roads.
This year, 155 people have died on our roads.
An RSA report on fatal collisions between 2008 and 2012 found that excessive speed was a contributory factor in almost one third of all fatal collisions during that time. The higher the speed, the greater the likelihood is of a collision happening and the more severe the outcome of that collision.