HALF of all Irish drivers admit to breaking the speed limit – and men are the worst offenders, a new survey shows.

Research published today found 64pc of men admitted to speeding compared to 49pc of women.

Our top three bad habits are driving too fast, forgetting to dim lights when meeting on-coming cars and driving too close to the car in front.

Alarmingly, 10pc of drivers admitted to driving without a seatbelt in the past year, according to the survey carried for Liberty Insurance’s Safe Driver Campaign.

Both sexes are guilty of taking their eye off the road with almost one in five admitting to eating, shaving, applying makeup or brushing their hair while driving.

Almost half of Irish drivers have also experienced another driver forcing them to pull in to allow an overtake manoeuvre while only 4pc admitted to doing this.

Two-thirds of drivers have experienced another driver not using their indicator while overtaking but only 15pc admitted to this.

Most worryingly, only 1pc admitted to driving without a seatbelt while children were in the car while almost two in five drivers have said they observed this in the past year.

The research, conducted by Millward Brown, also saw men admit to suffering more from frustration on the road.

A total of 24pc of men admitted to unnecessarily beeping the horn compared to 16pc of women.

And a quarter of women admit to having taken more than three turns when trying to park compared to 17pc of men.

The campaign is aimed at encouraging motorists to think more about driver safety by examining their driver behaviour and that of others.

The top three bad habits that Irish drivers have admitted to are driving over the speed limit (56pc ), forgetting to dim lights when meeting on-coming cars (31pc ) and driving too close to the car in front (22pc).

Liberty Insurance head of marketing Annette Ni Dhathlaoi said: “ Many Irish drivers are guilty of bad habits such as tailgating, driving over the speed limit or taking our eye off the road which can lead to road accidents.”

Online Editors