16/08/2017

New EU Road Safety Legislation Signed Into Law

The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Shane Ross, has announced the signing of the EU Cross-Border Exchange Directive into Irish law.

Minister Ross said: “This E.U. Directive will strengthen law-enforcement in dealing with cross-border road traffic offences. Currently, it can be difficult to identify who is the owner of a vehicle involved in a serious road traffic offence when the vehicle is registered elsewhere in the E.U. Now this process will make it much easier for An Garda Siochána to identify owners of vehicles from other Member States and consequently enhance public safety and we hope, save lives.”

Minister Ross also announced grants to 3 local authorities – Clare, Cork and Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown - for Pilot Traffic Calming Schemes. Local authorities must record speeds both before and after implementations of varied traffic calming initiatives and prepare a report on the effectiveness of the measures.

Minister Ross continued: “The consequences of speeding in built-up areas can be fatal. This initiative will examine appropriate ways of providing effective traffic calming measures which do not overly rely on the use of ramps. In many cases the measures will be associated with new lower speed limits and in all cases are targeted at improved compliance with speed limits. Again, this measure is part of a swathe of initiatives which I am introducing as part of my campaign to increase road safety and in doing so, save lives.”

(MH)

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