Motorist clocked at 150km/h in 100km/h area in Westmeath

One motorist was clocked travelling at over 150 kilometres per hour in a 100kph speed zone in Westmeath over night.

The incident was revealed by Gardai, who said the driver was among 689 nationally found to be travelling in excess of the applicable speed limit during its Slow Down Day operation which concluded this morning. Of those detections, over half (421) drivers were intercepted by Gardaí.

The Westmeath incident occurred overnight on the N4 at Clongawny outside Mullingar, when a motorist was found to be travelling at 151km/h in an area with a 100km/h speed limit.

Chief Superintendent in the Garda National Roads Policing Bureau, Jane Humphries said: "Across all our speed detection systems in place around the county, we are beginning to see some positive indications that drivers are becoming more mindful of the critical need to slow down. That said, the number of those who were detected during this National Slow Down Day do show that there are some people still intent on driving at dangerously excessive and inappropriate speed.

"These are the people that Gardaí are most focused on detecting in order to prevent fatal and serious road traffic collisions. They endanger themselves but they will also potentially kill you or I while driving at high speed.

"Research strongly demonstrates that choosing to drive 10Km/h over the speed limit, thinking that it will get you to your destination in quicker time, is a fallacy. If anything it can only save seconds from your journey so it really is not worth quite possibly loosing your life over.”