Drivers pay high price for towed cars

Gardai in Dublin towed away an average of 38 cars a day during the Christmas period, leaving motorists with a bill of almost £90,000 to reclaim them. Four tow-truck teams were involved in the operation, which resulted in more than 800 cars being towed in December. A Garda spokesman said that the figures included vehicles impounded for reasons other than traffic obstruction, for instance, cars on which tax was more than three months overdue.

But the vast majority of vehicles were removed as part of Freeflow 3, the third instalment of the Garda operation to clear major city routes, which was in operation from December 1st to January 5th. As well as towing cars away, the Garda trucks were also used to move vehicles causing obstruction.

All vehicles towed were taken to the 200-space car pound at Parkgate Street, where owners had to pay £100 to reclaim them. More than 95 per cent of cars are reclaimed on the same day, but a small number of owners pay an added premium, £25 a day, for not collecting cars immediately.

Christmas saw an extra 12 motorcycle gardai devoted exclusively to traffic, while 162 probationary officers from the Garda Training College were also deployed. The benefits of the measures included a "dramatic" improvement in city bus services, according to Mr John Henry, chief executive of the Dublin Transportation Office.

"We found during the first Freeflow in 1996 that buses did better in December than any other month of the year, and it was a similar success this time. Routes that experienced 40-minute delays in November were having at most five-minute delays in December."

Operation Freeflow has been succeeded by Operation Clearway, which will continue until next Christmas, with gardai concentrating on key routes. The ban on nonessential roadworks is to continue until March.