Despite a high profile Garda safety initiative over the bank holiday, the numbers killed on roads during the weekend rose to the same level as before the introduction of penalty points. Five people died - the same number as on the 2002 June bank holiday.
However, there was good news from the National Safety Council whose figures indicate that more Irish motorists are slowing down, especially in residential areas.
The bank holiday initiative, Operation Lifesaver, was designed to cut road deaths but it failed to live up to its name. By Monday night, the toll was more than double the same period last year, despite the campaign, a five-point careless driving charge which coincided with the start of the bank holiday, and a no-mercy Garda attitude to speeding drivers.
The exact numbers stopped for speeding or careless driving over last weekend are not yet available, but it's believed that almost 150,000 motorists now have points. Despite this the number dying on our roads continues to rise - so far this year the figure is 159, 14 more than in the same period last year.
Criticism is mounting on the locations of Garda speed traps. Four of the five fatal accidents over the bank holiday were on non-national roads and none were on dual carriageways, yet speed checks, with locations decided by officers on duty, tend to focus on main and dual carriageway roads.
"There is a perception by motorists that the Gardai are not policing the right zones," said Progressive Democrat Senator Tommy Morrisey recently. "This is being fed by the fact that we are seeing high visibility speed checks on our motorways, yet these are not necessarily accident blackspots."
In his soon to be published second road safety strategy, the Minister for Transport, Seamus Brennan, will address criticisms of speed check location. Garda checks, he will say, will be moved from dual carriageways and will focus on locations and road types known for speed-related collisions.
The National Safety Council sees an issue over resources as well as locations. "There are 90,000km of regional and local roads and 5,500km of national roads and only 12,000 Gardai," it says. "At the recent Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, the Gardai said that the total number of Gardai in the Traffic Corps is 550 and their main operational hours are from 8am and 2am. So you can see where the difficulty arises."
Meanwhile, preliminary findings from the National Roads Authority's 2003 survey of "free speeds" and seatbelt-wearing show motorists are slowing down in urban areas, and most significantly in residential areas where the number exceeding 30mph fell from 61 per cent in 2002 to 36 per cent in 2003.
On dual carriageways, the percentage exceeding the limit fell from 43 per cent in 2002 to 29 per cent in 2003 - on two-lane roads it fell from 44 to 30 per cent. On motorways, 23 per cent of cars broke the 70 mph limit, compared to 24 per cent in 2002. Some 85 per cent of articulated lorries broke the limit, an increase of 4 points, while 83 per cent of rigid vehicles did so, up one per cent.
The findings show seatbelt compliance rose in 2003, with 84 per cent of drivers and front passengers now belting up.
"Points are working and are saving lives," says Minister Brennan, "but it's a constant battle to get the message across. Drivers who break speed limits, flout seat-belt laws, drive carelessly or without insurance, will get points and could be off the road for six months."