266 drivers were caught using a mobile phone by Gardaí during a 24-hour period this week.
These drivers were caught during a national day of action targeting the use of a mobile phone while driving held by Gardaí between 7am on Wednesday and 7am yesterday morning.
This year 762 motorists have received a €120 fine and three penalty points on their licence for this road traffic offence.
The daily average detected using their phone while driving during 2024 was 60 people.
Yesterday's detection rate shows a four-fold increase.
"Quite concerning"
On The Pat Kenny Show, Sunday Independent motoring editor Ger Herbert said these numbers are “quite concerning”.
Ms Herbert said either the new Garda lobby car “seems to be working” or more people are “using their mobile phone” while driving.
The new Garda lobby car is a heavy goods vehicle tractor cab that was purchased by An Garda Síochána as part of efforts to target distracted and careless driving as well as seatbelt usage by HGV drivers.
The new road safety initiative was deployed in August.
Ms Herbert said there have not been any legal challenges to the penalty points or fines received from the new Garda lorry cab as of yet, but it’s “bound to happen”.
“I mean, there's challenges every day to penalty points and drink driving is one of the particularly contentious ones,” she said.
“So no, it hasn't happened yet but it's bound to happen.”
Reading text message while driving a car. Image: Alamy Stock PhotoMs Herbert further explained the workings of the new Garda lobby car.
“Basically, within the truck itself, there's two Gardaí - one is watching out and one is obviously driving,” she said.
“The one who's watching out is the one who's going to detect and with this higher vantage point, whether or not people are using their phones, they can obviously see an awful lot more into the cars and into vans, because it's a big issue with van drivers as well.
“They are accompanied by a Gardaí patrol car and they're the interceptor.
“So somebody does actually stop them and obviously issue the penalty and deliver the detection to the driver.”
Infotainment systems
Ms Herbert said the ‘infotainment’ systems in car are hugely distracting.
“There's huge amounts of research done on the impact of mobile phone usage, as in, making a phone call but we have yet to really determine how bad these infotainment screens are,” she said.
“Never mind just watching Netflix, these huge screens that are now dominating dashboards and the amount of different things you can do, the menus you just scroll down through to do simple tasks, sometimes in the car.
“The Euro NCAP has said from 2026 you have to have physical buttons for key functions now in cars in order to get a five star rating, so the car industry is going to have to move towards much safer systems.
“I mean, at the moment, the infotainment systems are as distracting as anything else.”
Ms Herbert said the vast majority of cars have systems where you can send messages or call people without using your mobile phone – so there is “no excuse for people holding a mobile phone”.
Motorist texting while driving. March 28, 2019 (Credit Image: © TNS via ZUMA Wire)
