Motor speed data from a Cork village showed “shocking violations” with nearly 90% of vehicles well in excess of the 50km/h limit, with one travelling in excess of 140km/h.
The survey carried out by Cork County Council engineers so shocked councillors and their officials that they are preparing to set up regular meetings with gardaí in an effort to stamp out appalling driver behaviour.
The survey results further reinforce concerns being regularly expressed in all of the county’s eight municipal districts that too many drivers are behaving recklessly and increasingly putting pedestrians’ lives at risk.
Nearly 90% of vehicles passing through the mid-Cork village of Rylane exceeded the 50km/h speed limit with one recorded travelling an astonishing 143km/h. Motorway speed limits are 120km/h.
Feedback displays were installed in Rylane 18 months ago that show passing drivers their speed, with corresponding flashing warnings to slow down if they are in excess of the 50km/h limit.
Data extracted from them showed an average 1,061 vehicles passed through the village each day. However, 86% of all vehicles passing through it were exceeding the 50km/h. The average speed of those vehicles was 83km/h.
The figures were released to councillors by senior executive engineer James Dwyer at a meeting of Macroom Municipal District Council. He said that the council uses “a matrix” of criteria to assess the need for traffic calming in villages.
Mr Dwyer said the number of criteria required to install traffic calming measures is 60. In Rylane it came in at 108.5 due to the high number of speed violations and the danger posed to locals.
Fine Gael councillor Eileen Lynch was shocked by the results of the speed survey, saying the finding bore out the large number of complaints that had come from village residents. Ms Lynch added that a new playground had just opened in the village and those using it were also at serious risk.
Fianna Fáil councillor Michael Looney said “nearly every village” in the district is asking for ramps to be installed because of the mounting number of vehicles which are dangerously exceeding speed limits.
Fianna Fáil councillor Gobnait Moynihan said the speedsters are passing a busy school and creche and something has to be urgently done to protect vulnerable children in particular.
Mr Dwyer said that he would enter into talks with the council’s roads design office to come up with traffic calming solutions for Rylane. He said in the meantime he would ask the gardaí to carry out speed enforcement there.
Meanwhile, senior council officials attending the meeting said because speeding is becoming a big issue across the municipal district, they will provide gardaí with all the council’s speed analysis from now on.
They said they would also seek regular meetings with them to highlight where there are issues and seek them to respond. Data from the council’s speed feedback signs don’t record vehicle registration numbers, so there can be no retrospective prosecutions.
In response to complaints from councillors, Mr Dwyer said the local authority will also carry out speed checks soon on a very busy slip road at the Macroom bypass and at the Liscahane road in Millstreet.
