Motorists cautioned over severe weather
The Irish Road Safety Authority has launched new publication today entitled ‘Severe Weather Advice for Road Users’. The publication contains advice for road users in various adverse weather conditions including Heavy Rainfall and Flooding, severe fog and snowy conditions.
The publication comes just as the country is in the grip of extreme weather conditions. Snow and ice are causing hazardous driving conditions on thousands of kilometres of local, and national, roads.
The cold snap is set to continue with Met Éireann forecasting that temperatures in parts of the country could drop to as low as -7C or -8C tonight. The cold weather is expected to continue up to Christmas Day, with frost fog and icy roads as well as further snow showers.
Motorists have been urged to be extremely careful on the roads as the cold snap continues to make driving hazardous.
More than 500 people have been killed and over 1,500 seriously injured on the roads over the six-week Christmas period in the last ten years. On the Late Late Show last week, Road Safety Authority (RSA) Chairman, Gay Byrne made the chilling prediction that, based on statistics, 20 people will die in road crashes between now and 1 January.
The Garda Road Safety Campaign for the Christmas and New Year Period has been in operation since 22th November 2009 with targeted enforcement in the following key areas:
- Driving under the influence of an intoxicant
- Speeding
- Non wearing of Safety Belts