Following a Garda clampdown, more than 400 speeding-fine notices are winging their way to motorists who exceeded the speed limit in Laois or Offaly last week.
The Laois/Offaly division deployed a white van with a computerised speed detection unit and caught 420 offenders. The minimum penalty for speeding is a £50 fine. The division will use the unmarked van one week a month from now on in an effort to reduce road accidents.
According to Insp Philip Lyons, there is a real need for the campaign. "Eight people were killed in road accidents in this division last December," he said. "That was one-third of the people killed in the whole year." Speeding was the main cause. Four people were killed in Laois/Offaly in January but, since the unit went into operation, there have been no road deaths.
The unit is concentrating on a number of accident black spots including the area between Mountrath and Roscrea, Edenderry and north Offaly. It is also concentrating on Ballylinan in south Laois, where three female pedestrians were killed last year. Laois far outnumbers Offaly in speeding offences, according to Insp Lyons.
"It is the crossroads of the county because the main roads to Cork and Limerick pass through it, so the volume of traffic is much higher than some other counties," he said.
There are now six such detector units in the State, with a seventh on the way. The number of speeding offences detected has increased dramatically since the units were introduced three years ago, according to Chief Supt Denis Fitzpatrick, head of the National Traffic Bureau.
More people have been fined for speeding this year than in the whole of 1997. Some 42,562 people received speeding fines in 1997. Last year, 224,264 people were fined for speeding.