Call for speed limit reduction

A SENIOR public health doctor has called on local authorities to consider introducing 30km/h speed limit zones in towns and villages in a bid to reduce deaths and injuries from crashes.

Dr Declan Bedford, acting director of public health with the HSE and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, said research from London showed the rationale for lower limits in built up areas was compelling.

The Grundy study, published in the British Medical Journal last week, found a reduction to a 20mph (32km/h) limit led to a 40 per cent fall in casualties and collisions over a 20-year period to 2006.

It also found no evidence of crashes being displaced to other routes with a higher speed limit.

“We would be calling on county councils to consider such a limit where possible, as the evidence from the research is so good,” said Dr Bedford.

In 2006, Dublin City Council lowered speed limits around most retail and central business areas from 50km/h to 30km/h. This year it passed a by-law allowing it to extend the limit to roads which are part of the national primary network, such as O’Connell Street and the quays. A 30km/h limit will apply on these routes from January 31st.

A 30km/h limit will come into force in Slane, Co Meath early next month as an interim measure, pending the construction of a bypass around the city, following 22 road deaths in the village over recent years.