THE Garda has announced a new campaign to reduce deaths and injuries from traffic accidents.
Introducing the force's new National Traffic Policy Bureau yesterday the Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, said its first major task would be a crackdown on speeding and other offences in the force's Louth/Meath divisional area, one of the worst areas for serious accidents.
He said that while there was always a justified outcry over the murder rate, last year's 42 murders in the State compared with 453 people killed and 13,000 injured in traffic accidents. There was relatively little public comment on the carnage on the roads.
The new bureau, which will co-ordinate traffic-policing activities, will be headed by Chief Supt John O'Brien.
Chief Supt O'Brien said there were four main concerns: speeding, drink- driving, dangerous driving and failure to wear a seatbelt.
The Louth/Meath initiative, named Operation Lifesaver, will last for six months from July 14th and will focus on improving the level of compliance by motorists in these areas.
Chief Supt O'Brien said the Garda was concerned to raise the awareness of pedestrians as well as motorists. A third of fatal accidents involve pedestrian deaths.
The initiatives have become necessary after a sharp increase in deaths in recent years: there were 404 in 1994, 433 in 1995 and 453 last year. So far this year 215 people have been killed on the roads.
The Garda has a fleet of new vehicles to target traffic offences. There are 12 unmarked cars.
The two on display at Garda headquarters yesterday were red Opel 2.5 litre V6 Vectras, capable of speeds of up to 140 m.p.h.
The unmarked cars have video cameras pointing through the front window. The
Garda driver moves in behind a speeding motorist and sets the video-tape running. It automatically records the speed as well as images of the targeted car.
There is also an unmarked van (a red Renault Trafic) for parking on the side of the road.
It has a radar-linked camera in the rear window, which photographs each speeding car. It also carries a computer for immediate processing of fines notices.
The photographs are so clear that the driver and some passengers can be identified. Gardai say they use the photographs with discretion.
"We wouldn't send it to your house, in case it showed you with someone you shouldn't have been with," said one.
The unmarked van was parked recently on the Naas dual carriageway, where the speed limit had been reduced to 40 m.p.h. due to roadworks. New signs showing the limit had been set up, as were signs warning of Garda speed checks.
Despite the warnings, cars at speeds approaching twice the limit went past the van at the rate of one a minute. On a Saturday that rate increased to one every 30 seconds.