All you need to know as Government proposes new Road Traffic Bill

Government will today be considering a new road safety proposal, with the aim of preventing increasing numbers of road fatalities.

The Minister of State for Transport Jack Chambers hopes that the Cabinet will approve his Road Traffic Bill, which would see the introduction of several regulations for road users.

Due to the current Road Traffic Act 2002, a driver can only receive one set of penalty points for the highest offence committed, if they have been found to commit multiple offences at the same time. As part of his new proposals, Minister Chambers has now suggested that Gardaí should be able to apply multiple penalty points in a single stop, if a driver has committed more than one offence.

Earlier this year, the Speed Limit Review recommended that default speed limits on Irish roads should be reduced. The Road Traffic Bill intends to address these suggestions by lowering speed limits from 50km/h to 30km/h in built up areas, from 100km/h to 80km/h for national secondary roads and from 80km/h to 60km/h on rural and local roads.

If the bill is passed into law, Gardaí will also soon be carrying out mandatory drug tests at the scene of a serious accident, in line with alcohol breathalyser tests. At the moment, Gardaí are only required to carry out a drug test if they feel it is necessary to do so.

The new Road Traffic Bill proposals come as the number of road deaths during this year continues to rise at a worrying trend. As we approach the final days of 2023, it has been recorded that over 180 people have lost their lives so far on Irish roads.

This statistic is a stark contrast to the 155 fatalities that occurred throughout all of 2022, and the 135 people that lost their lives in 2019.

If the Road Traffic Bill is passed, the Government aims to use it to help reduce road deaths and serious injuries by 50% by 2030.