A video, apparently made on a hand-held mobile phone and showing a lorry travelling through the Dublin Port Tunnel at more than 100 km/h, has been removed from the internet website youtube.
The Road Safety Authority, which became aware of the existence of similar videos on websites yesterday, said their making is irresponsible and dangerous. The authority is to refer such material to the gardaí and ask the owners of websites concerned to make them unavailable.
The video, taken from the drivers position of a speeding lorry was recorded on December 21st last, just one day after the tunnel opened. It showed the lorry entering and leaving the tunnel in just three minutes - half the recommended time of six minutes for the journey.
The video was made with a hand-held device, apparently a mobile phone and was accompanied by the soundtrack from Bad, from the U2 album Unforgettable Fire. The title of the video on the website was "Going in the new Port Tunnel with U2".
Scenes featured the road inside the tunnel, the side mirrors, the passenger seat - indicating the lorry was not a left-hand drive - and repeatedly showed the lorry's speedometer where the needle reached levels above 100. It was not possible to determine however whether the speed was in miles or kilometres per hour. At the time the video was made the speed limit in the tunnel was 50km/h. It was changed yesterday to 80km/h.
The footage on youtube identified the name and age of the alleged contributor.
Other recordings, not all of them showing speeding lorries nor necessarily made by drivers, remained available on youtube and a number of other sites yesterday. A number of web-based discussions boards also contained links to trips through the tunnel.
Brian Farrrell of the Road Safety Authority said the making of such videos by drivers was "obviously totally irresponsible and illegal. We'll certainly be highlighting this to the Garda Traffic Corps and will be seeking the removal of the videos from the websites concerned. We will point out to the internet providers that this is not appropriate," he added.
A spokesman for the National Roads Authority said the gardaí were on duty at the tunnel between 12 and 16 hours a day.
While there are no Garda speed cameras in the tunnel itself, the tunnel video cameras are relayed to a Garda operational desk in the administration building where the tunnel operator's speed detection systems are also available.
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