More than 1,000 drivers were caught travelling over the speed limit yesterday as An Garda Síochána and the Road Safety Authority carried out National Slow Down Day.
One motorist in Wexford was detected driving at 168km/h in a 100km/h zone, while a pair of drivers in Dublin and Wicklow were found to be travelling more than twice as fast as the speed limits permit in their respective zones.
The national speed enforcement initiative is designed to promote safer driving and reduce speed-related crashes across Ireland, coinciding with the increase in road use over the Christmas holidays.
Despite a number of safety campaigns, there has been a rise in traffic fatalities in 2025. As of December 23rd, 186 people were killed on Irish roads, marking an increase of 19 deaths on the same period in 2024.
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Road safety campaigners have warned that that figure could reach 200 by the end of the year.
National Slow Down Day ran for 24 hours from 12am to 11.59pm on December 23rd. On Wednesday morning, An Garda Síochána said 1,038 drivers had been detected driving at in excess of the appropriate local speed limit and that gardaí had intercepted 377.
It is part of a Christmas road safety blitz carried out by An Garda, which is targeting speeding and drink and drug driving via routine checkpoints, traffic-monitoring vehicles and an increased use of traffic cameras.
Among the other high-speed detections cited by An Garda was a motorist in Westmeath travelling at 163km/h in a 120km/h zone and a driver in Kildare who was found travelling at 148km/h in a 120km/h zone.
Gardaí say driving above the legal speed limit, or at a speed unsuitable for current road, weather or traffic conditions, endangers the driver themselves as well as putting other road users at significant risk.
The Christmas period is one of the busiest on Irish roads, and it is a time when road users are at a high risk of being involved in a crash.
