‘Operation Taitneamh' to focus on bank holiday drivers

‘Operation Taitneamh’, a special garda operation within the Westmeath Garda Division, swung into operation at lunchtime today, Friday and will continue throughout the June bank holiday weekend.

Aimed at concentrating the mindset of the travelling public on one of the busiest periods on the Irish road networks, ‘Operation Taitneamh’ will see up to 60 officers manning major and minor roads in the county over the four-day period.

“This is the very first operation of this scale in Ireland and with Westmeath servicing links to both the west and north west of Ireland, this is the ideal location for such an operation”, Chief Superintendent Kevin Gralton, head of the Westmeath Garda Division, told the Westmeath Examiner at lunchtime.

The focus of Friday’s operation was traffic heading towards the west at the start of the weekend, while the operation will switch to east-bound traffic on Monday.

“Our aim is to control speed and to create a mindset whereby motorists will take greater care on the roads”, said Chief Supt Gralton.

“This operation is more about education than detection. We are simply trying to get people to comply with the law and to improve safety on our roads”, he said.

“We will have 29 vehicles and more than 50 officers taking part in ‘Operation Taitneamh’ and as the name suggests, we want every road user to be able to enjoy safe driving over the weekend,” he said.

High visibility is key to the operation, said the garda chief, with officers attached to the Traffic Corps also being supported by both the Detective Units in Mullingar and Athlone, as well as the Regional Armed Support Unit.

The use of the motorway ramps will play a key role in ‘Operation Taitneamh’, stressed Chief Supt Gralton.

“We all know that if we see a patrol car on a ramp, we will automatically slow down, but once we pass, we step up the speed.

“In this campaign we will be utilising three ramps at any one time and in so doing we hope to bring home to motorists the need for total vigilance,” he added.

In tandem with the focus on road safety, the officers taking part in ‘Operation Taitneamh’ will also have prepared packs on crime prevention, along with Hi Vis jackets which they will distribute to motorists over the weekend.