Garda Commissioner Noel Conroy has appointed Assistant Commissioner Eddie Rock to head the newly established Garda Traffic Corps.
Mr Rock (54), a native of Co Roscommon, will move from the Dublin North Central Division within the next three weeks.
Some €30 million has been made available this year for the establishment of the traffic corps, which hopes to reduce fatalities on roads by 25 per cent to below 300 by 2006. By 2008 the Garda traffic corps will be 1,200 strong, resulting in around 340 members patrolling roads at any one time.
Traffic enforcement has been identified as one of six major strategic goals for the Garda in its policing plan for 2005. The new traffic corps will undertake initiatives to manage traffic - similar to Operation Freeflow - in all congested urban centres at Christmas, bank holiday weekends and other peak periods.
So far this year, 54 people have died on the State's roads, eight more than during the same period last year. A total of 379 people died on the roads last year, an increase of 44 on 2003.
Mr Conroy announced a number of other manegerial changes in the force in a statement today.
Assistant Commissioner Western Region, Mr Dermot Jennings, will move to Mullingar to take charge of the Eastern Region, Mr Jerry Kelly, newly appointed Assistant Commissioner, will move from Limerick Division to Galway where he will take charge of the Western Region. Mr Martin Callinan, another newly appointed Assistant Commissioner, will move from the Garda Crime & Security Branch, in Garda HQ, to National Support Services.
