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Fines to double for key road-traffic offences

Fixed-charges fines are to double for key road-safety offences, including speeding, phone-use, and non-wearing of seatbelts.

Between January and mid-July this year, a total of 88,368 motorists have been detected speeding.

The speeding fine will increase from €80 to €160, and the fine for using a mobile phone while driving or for not wearing a seatbelt will double to €120, according to the Road Safety Authority (RSA).

The announcement was made at an RSA and An Garda Síochána mid-summer road safety appeal, which urged road users to share the roads safely.

Higher traffic volumes are expected throughout August.

The highest number of monthly fatalities in ten years was recorded in August 2021, with 22 deaths.

2022 has seen a 42% increase in fatalities compared with the same period in 2021, with 94 people having been killed on the roads so far this year, an increase of 28 deaths.

Speaking at Atlantic Technological University (Letterkenny) Donegal, Hildegarde Naughton (Minister of State at the Department of Transport) said: “I am gravely concerned about the high number of deaths on our roads this year. We need to act now to stem this increase.

“Accordingly, I intend to double the fines for key road-traffic offences which are putting drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists at most risk of death on our roads.”

The minister said she would also double fines for offences that put the safety of children walking, cycling or scooting to school at risk.

RSA chair Liz O’Donnell, commending the decision, said: “We have seen a devastating increase in road trauma this year. 94 people have died and 673 [have been] seriously injured. All of us have a responsibility to stop this upward trend in road crashes.”

'Speed fallacy'

O’Donnell added that the RSA would be launching a campaign to highlight what’s known as the ‘speed fallacy’ – the belief that lots of time is saved by speeding.

Assistant Commissioner Paula Hilman (Roads Policing and Community Engagement, An Garda Síochána) said that 61 new safety-camera zones have become operational (26 July), bringing the total number nationwide to 1,373.