Close to €700k in speeding fines on Limerick motorway in eight months

NEW AVERAGE speed cameras on the M7 have helped put the brakes on speeding motorists.

The system, located near Birdhill, has been operational since April 2022 following over a year of testing and calibration. The cameras are located between Junction 26 (Nenagh West) and Junction 27 (Birdhill) and cover traffic in both directions on the motorway.

The average speed safety cameras record vehicles at two distinct points a set distance apart, and note the split second a vehicle passes each camera. It allows gardai to accurately calculate the speed a vehicle is travelling at.

Figures provided by gardai, for the period between April 25 and December 13, 2022, reveal 3,009 eastbound motorists - travelling towards Dublin - were detected driving over the 120km/h limit.

A further, 2,682 westbound motorists - heading towards Limerick - were caught speeding.

If they all paid the fixed charge penalty notice on time it amounts to almost €700,000.

The Irish Times crunched the numbers and said, on average, 24 drivers were caught speeding every day. However, in July 2022, assistant Garda Commissioner Paula Hilman said there were 47 detections per day (in the first two months of the system). This suggests motorists increasingly got the message to slow down to result in an average of 24 per day over the almost eight months.

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If you go back further, analysis of traffic data by Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) shows that since 2017, 40% of drivers exceeded the 120km/h speed limit between Limerick and Nenagh.

That stretch has long been controversial due to the number of accidents that occur on it and particularly during heavy rain and hail showers.

That route was built through a bog. Its construction was delayed because of subsidence and it became known at the time as the “sinking motorway”.

In 2021, Minister of State Niall Collins and Cllr Marin Ryan called on Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) to investigate the M7 between Annacotty and Nenagh.

Mr Collins said he raised his concerns over “aquaplaning” as far back as 2018 through a Dail question and got a “piecemeal” answer from TII.

“What has to happen for them to take action? It can’t be a coincidence that multiple crashes occur when there are hail showers or heavy rain.

“Motorways should be the safest of all roads but for some reason this isn’t. There has to be something seriously wrong. It is a significant issue of public concern,” said Mr Collins.

Meanwhile, Cllr Ryan moved at a meeting of the Cappamore-Kilmallock municipal district last year for the use of average speed cameras be considered in towns and villages where speed is a concern.

Currently, they are only located in the Dublin Tunnel and on the M7.