Drivers in Dublin, Cork and Waterford were the worst offenders caught by gardaí during a country-wide operation to warn motorists to slow down, latest figures show.

A breakdown of the speeds detected during the 24-hour National Slow Down Day, which ended at 7am on Saturday, show the highest in 50km/h, 60 km/h and 120 km/h zones were all in and around the capital.

A driver was caught on the M1 at Lusk, in north Co Dublin, doing 181km/h on the 120km/h motorway.

The highest speed detected in a 50 km/h zone was 84 km/h, while a motorist was found doing 81 km/h in a 60 km/h zone. Both were also in Dublin.

The worst offender in a 100 km/h zone was doing 151 km/h at Gort na gCros in Mallow, Co Cork.

The highest speed detected in a 80km/h zone was 138km/h on the R675 at Ballykinsella in Co Waterford.

The breakdown also shows that no drivers were caught speeding in counties Leitrim or Westmeath during the operation.

Nationally, 286 vehicles were detected travelling in excess of the speed limits between 7am on Friday and 7am on Saturday - a rate of roughly one every five minutes.

Separate figures up until 7pm on Friday showed a rate of one every three minutes, suggesting more detections during the day.

Roads-policing gardaí targeted about 1,000 locations with speed cameras.

The vast majority of the more than 200,000 vehicles tracked during the operation were within the speed limit.

Chief Superintendent Paul Cleary, of the Roads Policing unit, thanked the “204,849 drivers who were found to be compliant”.

He also urged drivers to “think about the consequences of speeding, and every time you get behind the wheel, reduce your speed accordingly.”

As well as the increased speed-detection measures, the Garda and Road Safety Authority are also running a media campaign to urge drivers to slow down.

Road fatalities

Excessive speed is a factor in approximately one-third of fatal road traffic collisions. As a general rule, a 1 per cent reduction in average speed will see a 4 per cent reduction in fatal collisions, gardaí said.

As of October 16th this year, there have been 117 road fatalities, an increase of five on this date last year.

A total of 95,998 speeding detections have been made between January and August 2019, some 15 per cent higher than the 81,598 detections made during the same period last year.

Chief Supt Cleary said the National Slow Down Day was important because “roads deaths are significantly higher than this period last year”.

“With the darker, wetter weather approaching, vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists will be at higher risk over the coming months,” he said.

“While most drivers abide by the speed limits, there has been an increase of 15 per cent in detections to date in 2019 compared to 2018. It is also very disappointing to see some drivers detected driving considerably over the speed limit,” he added.

Moyagh Murdock, chief executive of Road Safety Authority said, “excessive and inappropriate speeding is the biggest killer” on Irish roads.

“What a driver considers small increases in their speed could be the difference between life and death for such vulnerable road users,” Ms Murdoch said.

“A pedestrian or cyclist hit at 60km/h will only have a 1 in 10 chance of survival, however if hit at 30km/h, nine out of 10 will survive.This is especially true in vulnerable road-user rich environments like towns and cities.”