Four new speed camera locations in Athlone region

Four new speed camera zones are to be introduced in the Athlone area.

The four, two in South Westmeath, one in South Roscommon and one close to the Offaly border, are among 61 extra nationally which will become operational from 6am on Tuesday, bringing the total number of safety camera zones nationwide to 1,373.

The new South Westmeath zones are both on sections of the M6 in this region.

They include a circa 3.5km section of the M6 from the junction for the new service station at Fassagh between Athlone and Moate, back towards Athlone and a circa 2 kilometre section of the M6 from just before Junction 5 (Kilbeggan/Tullamore) eastwards to where the motorway crosses the Grand Canal.

The Offaly zone is just outside the village of Ballinahown, extending on the N62 to between Doon and Ferbane.

The Roscommon zone is on the R362 and extends some 3 kilometres from the church at Rahara towards Curraghboy village.

Gardai say the primary purpose of safety cameras is to reduce speed-related collisions, lessen injuries and save lives.

To date in 2022, there have been 89 road deaths an increase in 28 over 2021 and 13 to date in 2019.

Safety cameras operate in areas where there is a history of speed related collisions known as speed enforcement zones.

All zones are available on the Garda website. Gardai say the new locations were selected following an analysis of collated Garda data acquired from fatal, serious and minor road traffic collisions and from further consideration given to locations of concern highlighted by local communities through local Garda Community engagement.

The new zones are spread across 23 counties, 49% on Regional Routes, 31% National Routes and 20% on other routes (Motorway, Local Roads etc.).

Superintendent Thomas Murphy, Garda National Roads Policing Bureau said: "When someone decides to speed they put themselves and members of their community at risk, particularly children, older people, cyclists and other motorists. Our priority is to ensure that the vast majority of people who use the roads responsibly are not put in danger by a minority of reckless drivers who continue to drive at excessive speed."

Superintendent Murphy continued: "The deployment of safety cameras has been proven to save lives. I call on every road user to play their part to make the roads safer for all. You can do this by being a Lifesaver #Slowdown”

GoSafe has completed over 1 million hours of enforcement and checked over 307m vehicles up to end 2021. The number of vehicles detected by GoSafe in excess of the speed limit is on average less than 1.5 vehicles per hour of monitoring

More than 2.2m fixed charge notices for speeding offences both Intercept (Garda) and Non-intercept (GoSafe) have been issued in the same time