Cyclists urgently need a dedicated portal for submitting dangerous driving footage

A dedicated portal for submitting footage of dangerous driving to An Garda Síochána is urgently needed for cyclists, a Fine Gael TD said.

In light of road safety week which runs until the end of this week, Galway East TD, Ciaran Cannon, is calling for a specific online portal which would allow cyclists to submit footage to be reviewed by the relevant authorities.

Deputy Cannon said, “There is a serious need to strengthen the rights of our vulnerable road users. I recently shared an example of some footage of life-threatening driving on Twitter, captured by a fellow cyclist.

“All road users are vulnerable and deserving of a safe space. Irish Road Safety Week (IRSW) is about working together to save lives and prevent serious injuries on our roads.

“Should someone encounter reckless driving, it is vital that they are presented with the opportunity to follow up on this and have their case assessed by experts so that we can have consistency of enforcement right across our country. That simply doesn’t exist at the moment. Some cyclists have a very positive experience of submitting video footage and others have the exact opposite.

“Recent figures from An Garda Síochána revealed that 107 people have been killed on Irish roads between January 1^st and September 2^nd, up 14 on the same period in 2021 and up 18 on the same period in 2020.

“An online portal would completely transform the reporting process, giving additional eyes and ears to our Gardaí, and would make our roads much safer for all vulnerable road users. Many of these tragic deaths could be avoided.

“This would require no legislative change and we’ve seen a number of successful prosecutions taken using video footage from cyclists. We simply need to offer the opportunity to submit the footage in a far more streamlined manner and have it assessed by Gardaí, who are experts in our road safety legislation. It’s already been done very successfully in the UK and we should be doing the same here”, Deputy Cannon concluded.