WITH almost 2,000 drivers found using mobile phones in Limerick during the first eight months of the year, the message from An Garda Siochana is clear, “put the phone down while driving – it could cost you your life”.
Operation Handsfree was launched in Limerick on Monday as a joint initiative involving Gardaí and local mobile phone businesses who are introducing special offers to encourage drivers to purchase handsfree kits and to stop holding phones while driving.
Inspector Paul Reidy of the Limerick Divisional Traffic Corp said that the aim of the initiative is to reduce fatalities on the road and the number of serious collisions.
“Unfortunately we are at ten fatalities on Limerick roads so far this year while last year there were four for the entire 12 months. We are very concerned about that and we want to do everything we can about that'” he said.
From Monday, September 19 to October 1, associated local businesses will be running special offers on handsfree kits for drivers to install and use in their cars.
“We want to encourage people to avail of the offers and to cease the practice of holding a phone while driving” Inspector Reidy said after he said that 1,996 people have been detected committing the offence so far in 2016.
Chief Superintendent Dave Sheahan said that the Limerick divisional traffic corp had “carried out a number of blitz detections and were catching 40 or 50 people using their mobiles while driving.
“That should not be part of our job. We want to get the message across but, for some reason, it is not getting out there.
“The aim of the initiative introduced by Inspector Reidy and local mobile phone business affiliated to Limerick Chamber is to create awareness rather than having people getting caught.
“We want people to have the information. It is important to convince people that the idea of using a mobile phone while driving is a non-runner and everyone knows how dangerous it is but yet people still try to do it.
“If you look at some of the hard hitting advertisements on radio and television that are out there now, it’s hard to understand why the message isn’t getting through” Supt Sheahan said.
“I know in my house some people turn the television off because the advertisements are so graphic and hard hitting. What we are trying to do with this initiative is to try and create that extra awareness. We are not out there to try and catch people using their mobile phone. We are out there trying to save their lives. End of story.”
