Since the National Slow Down Day operation began at 7am on Thursday morning, An Garda Síochána has detected 689 drivers travelling in excess of the applicable speed limit.
Of those detections, over half (421) of the drivers were intercepted by gardaí.
Examples of the high speeds detected overnight include:
- 151km/h in a 100km/h zone on the N4 Clongawny, Mullingar, Westmeath;
- 94km/h in a 60km/h zone on the N4 Drishoge, Carrick-On-Shannon, Roscommon;
- 110km/h in an 80km/h zone on the N4 Doddsborough, Lucan, Dublin;
- 126km/h in a 100km/h zone on the N7 Castlewarden, South Kill, Kildare;
- 84km/h in a 60km/h Zone on the N25 Lemybrien, Waterford;
- 112km/h in an 80km/h zone on the R430 Drumagh, Crettyyard, Laois.
Chief superintendent of the Garda National Roads Policing Bureau, Jane Humphries, said: "Across all our speed detection systems in place around the county, we are beginning to see some positive indications that drivers are becoming more mindful of the critical need to slow down.
"That said, the number of those who were detected during this National Slow Down Day do show that there are some people still intent on driving at dangerously excessive and inappropriate speed.
"These are the people that gardaí are most focused on detecting in order to prevent fatal and serious road traffic collisions. They endanger themselves but they will also potentially kill you or I while driving at high speed.
"Research strongly demonstrates that choosing to drive 10Km/h over the speed limit, thinking that it will get you to your destination in quicker time, is a fallacy. If anything, it can only save seconds from your journey, so it really is not worth quite possibly losing your life over.”
