So An Gardaí are claiming a successful campaign at the weekend, comparing this year’s 1 death to last year’s 5 deaths. There is an undoubted good news story in that comparison, but was this down to the guards? I drove around 350 miles over the bank holiday weekend at various times, on national primary, national secondary and local roads, in rural and urban areas and only managed to come across one guard who didn’t look to be doing anything productive (in Roscrea).

I’m hoping that I missed something, but it has to be said I’ve seen some of the most horrifically dangerous driving this weekend. Genuinely scary stuff, at times. I know there is a lo-call number to ring in such incidents.. but in fairness it’s kind of hard to see (let alone note down) the registration number when you’re concentrating on braking sharply to avoid rear-ending the VW Golf that has pulled sharply in front of you (with no indication, of course), on a blind corner, with a double white line at the top of a hill.

If the guards are indeed responsible for this reduction, then congratulations on the hard work. I guess one way to tell is to wait for the next long weekend. Just don’t get me started on the 60 KM/h speed restriction on the N7!!