Gardai will operate more than 3,000 checkpoints over the bank holiday weekend in to try to reduce road deaths and injuries. Additional radar speed checks will also be in operation throughout the State.
Gardai have been arresting 160 drunk drivers a week on average and have warned that there will be "rigorous enforcement" of the drink driving laws.
Statistics also reveal that 120,000 speeding tickets have been issued in the last year.
The planned checkpoints and road safety campaign are part of the Garda National Traffic Policy Bureau's objective to reduce road deaths and injuries. They follow another nine deaths on the road in the past week, bringing to 246 the number of people killed this year. However, the number of deaths is down 14 on the same period last year.
This week's fatalities include Ms Elizabeth Lawlor (56), from Ballaghmoon, Co Carlow, who died when her car went out of control and hit a tree at on Tuesday night. A post-mortem was conducted at the District Hospital in Carlow yesterday.
A Dublin taxi-driver, Mr Arthur Murphy, was killed early yesterday morning when a stolen car hit his taxi in Clonsilla.
The extra checkpoints are by now an established operation on bank holidays when there tend to be more fatal accidents than on other weekends. On what is one of the busiest weekends of the year on Irish roads, the National Safety Council has also appealed to motorists to "take it easy".
The council will be targeting 15,000 motorists on major routes this weekend. It will be distributing safety leaflets and its information officer, Mr Gavin Freeman, said the messages for motorists are "easy on the accelerator, never drink and drive and always wear a seat belt".
The council points out that 37 people lost their lives on the roads and more than 1,000 people were injured last August.