Achi news desk-
The NCT invitation for testing will also be shortened to 12 days until the summer.
Both promises were made at a meeting with Simon Harris, ministers Helen McEntee, Eamon Ryan, Jack Chambers and the heads of the Road Safety Authority, Liz O’Donnell and Sam Wade.
The Garda SÃochána will also be asked to provide ongoing enforcement activity programs as part of efforts to tackle deaths on Irish roads this year.
The RSA will spend an extra €3m this year on road safety campaigns and education initiatives from their reserves.
The authority will also be tasked with examining what additional funds they need this year and they will come from the Ministry of Transportation.
Also, collision data will be shared and law changes will be made if necessary following proposals from the Data Enabler group led by RSA to the Data Protection Commissioner.
A total of 12 new camera enforcement sites will be established in the coming months, of which three are average speed cameras.
These enforcement cameras will also be able to detect cell phone use and whether seat belts are worn or not.
The driving test curriculum will be reviewed, something that has not been done for over 30 years.
Drivers who ignore traffic lights will be caught and automatically fined when new ‘red light cameras’ are introduced later this year.
The cameras will be placed at intersections where drivers run red lights, starting in Dublin and then rolling out to the rest of the country.
Mr Harris said: “After nearly two decades of positive progress, we have recently seen a sudden and worrying rise in the number of road deaths.
“The increase in the number of deaths on our roads is unacceptable, and a renewed focus on road safety and driver behavior is required.”
The idea of ​​traffic light cameras has been mooted for several years, but Transport Secretary Eamon Ryan said they would soon be introduced as part of a number of automated traffic enforcement measures.
Cameras will also monitor bus lanes to catch and penalize drivers of unauthorized vehicles who use them, he said.
“We’re going to get them,” Mr. Ryan said.
“This is first and foremost for daily management of bus routes, of parking, of standing at traffic lights.
“When we do surveys, we find that a large number of people break lights and this is a huge safety concern.
“So yes, among the whole series of new camera technologies we’re about to introduce will be the introduction of cameras, starting in Dublin, where you have an automatic system that captures any breaking lights or entering bus lanes inappropriately.”
Fines will be issued automatically to reduce the time and cost involved in prosecuting offences, he added.
“It will be later this year into next year,” he said.
Mr Ryan, junior transport minister Jack Chambers and Taoiseach Simon Harris met with officials amid growing concern over the 31% rise in road deaths so far this year.
“We have to reverse these figures and I am convinced that we can and will,” he said.
Along with new cameras, he said there would be a need to focus on increasing enforcement with more gardaà on the street and on the beat.
According to him, the preparations to reduce the default speed limits on the national and non-national roads continued quickly, but the need to change every sign on every road took time.
As part of the changes, roads where the 100 km/h limit applies will be reduced to 80 km/h, and 80 km/h roads will change to 60 km/h.
In urban areas, the default limit of 50 km/h will be reduced to 30 km/h, unless local authorities consider it unnecessary.
“Councils will need time to make that assessment,” Mr Ryan said.
In recent days, the Irish Independent has revealed that dedicated road policing officers will not be on duty between 2am and 7am most days, under a plan agreed by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris.
“I am concerned about the level of Garda resources policing traffic on the roads,” said Mr Harris in Lucan, Dublin.
“I know that the Commissioner has to make difficult decisions with the resources at his disposal. I want to see these resources increased, so does he and I expect them to increase during this year.”
63 people have died on Irish roads so far this year. This is 15 more than in the same period last year.
Of these deaths, 41 people involved drivers, passengers, pedestrians and motorcyclists aged 30 and under.
Details of the new squad emerged just days after Commissioner Harris ordered that every officer on duty must carry out at least 30 minutes of road policing every day, in a bid to combat the alarming spiral of road deaths.
