Details of the first ever pan European 24-hour speed enforcement marathon have been released by TISPOL, latter the European Traffic Police Network. Some 22 countries, including Ireland, are taking part, starting today April 16th from 6.00am to 6.00am, ending Friday April 17th.
TISPOL President Aidan Reid commented: “This speed marathon is all about prevention. We want drivers to think about the speeds they choose; speeds which are both legal and appropriate for the conditions. By doing so, they will be reducing the risks they face and the risks they pose to other road users. That is why we encourage participating countries and police forces to publish information about the precise locations of speed checkpoints in advance. We want to get into the heads of drivers, not their purses.”
Last year, 27,500 people died in road collisions across the European Union with inappropriate speeds proven to be the single biggest factor resulting in death.
Countries participating in this 24-hour speed enforcement marathon are as follows:
Ireland, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Germany, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Croatia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway (not an EU member state) ,Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia and the U.K. are all taking part taking part.
Chief Superintendent Mr Aidan Reid, DMR Traffic, Dublin Castle and President of TISPOL has stated; “A total of 196 people tragically lost their lives on Irish roads last year. To date this year 47 people have died, and although that is 5 fewer than this date last year, it is still 47 lives too many. Many more people are seriously injured in road crashes also. There are 727 locations, known as “speed enforcement zones” where safety cameras operate and which have a history of fatal and serious injury collisions. To inform and protect motorists we publish these high risk locations on the Garda website, so drivers can become familiar with where they are, but most importantly do contribute to making our roads safer. Throughout the course of today’s “Speed Enforcement Marathon”, we will be releasing figures from safety cameras operating in these high risk zones. Our sincere wish is for zero detection, which will effectively mean drivers have responded fully to the overall aim of this initiative, which is to ‘slow down’ and make our roads a safer place for all users.”
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