DUBLIN, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Irish police on Friday launched a 24-hour nation-wide operation to crack down on speeding to mark the country's National Slow Down Day.
The operation, which kicked off at 7:00 a.m. Friday morning, is aimed at reducing the number of speed-related collisions on the Irish roads.
The operation consists of high visibility speed enforcement over 1,000 enforcement zones across the country as well as the delivery of road safety messages to motorists through the use of the national, local and social media, said the police.
It is an action taken by the police in collaboration with Road Safety Authority (RSA), a government agency responsible for the public safety on the Irish roads.
A violator of the speed limits rules will face a three-penalty-point reduction and a fine of 80 euros (92 U.S. dollars), said an official with the RSA.
In Ireland, a driver's license will be suspended if he or she loses 12 penalty points in a three-year time.
According to the police figures, over 85,000 cases of speed limits violations had been detected by the end of this August.
The RSA officials said that inappropriate speed is a factor in a third of fatal crashes on the Irish roads each year.
As of the mid-October of this year, there had been 117 road deaths reported in Ireland, they said.
Last year, a total of 158 people were killed on the Irish roads, the lowest annual figure ever recorded in the country since 1959, according to the RSA figures.
Ireland was the 4th safest European Union country in terms of road deaths in 2017 partially thanks to the implementation of National Slow Down Day initiative which was first launched in 2012, said the RSA, adding that the country plans to reduce its annual figure of road fatalities to 120 or fewer by the year 2020.
