People looking down at their phones are contributing to the increase in incidents between the Luas and pedestrians, Luas operator Transdev has said.
Transdev communications manager Dervla Murphy says they are calling on pedestrians to look at their behaviour and modify accordingly
She told RTÉ's Morning Ireland that this year there have been 223 emergency brake incidents involving pedestrians, an increase from 203 last year.
Considering Luas last year carried 37 million passengers and are expected to carry 44 million this year, she said this figure was proportionally low, but that “even one incident was one incident too many.”
Ms Murphy said that headphones and smart phones were a factor with people looking down at their phone, not looking left and right “totally distracted”.
“They are more likely to walk out in front of a tram. They need to look at their behaviour.”
She pointed out that trams need time to stop and warned that pedestrians need to take more care.