Midlands Motorists Urged To Drive Safely On National Slow Down Day

The event begins at 7 o'clock this morning.

Gardaí are running their second National Slow Down Day of 2019 today - urging road users to watch their speed and drive safely.

It's in response to a 15% increase in speeding detections so far this year.

The event will be running for 24 hours from this morning with the aim of increasing compliance with speed limits across the country. 

There's been 117 deaths on Irish roads in 2019 - that's up five on last year. 

While just under 100,000 speeding detections were made in the same period.

The third highest recorded speed in that time was a car was clocked doing 189 km/h in a 80km/h zone on the N55 near Glasson in Westmeath.  

Another aim of the campaign is increased safety for cyclists during shorter and darker winter evenings.

Recent figures show those struck at 60km/h have a one in ten chance of survival - that rate jumps to nine in ten if they're hit at 30km/h.

The initiative comes ahead of a planned 72 hour strike by speed van operators over working conditions during the October Bank Holiday Weekend. 
 

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