Gardaí step up pressure on drivers who use hand-held mobiles

THE extra gardaí allocated recently to the Mayo Traffic Corps seems to be paying dividends as regards detections of illegal mobile phone usage.

Last week a patrol car was spotted parked discreetly in a housing estate off Charles Street in Castlebar,

Every now and then, as a driver whizzed by, mobile phone glued to his/her ear, the patrol-men would shoot onto the main thoroughfare in pursuit of the errant ones.

Mobile phone use/texting by drivers is now, unfortunately, an epidemic in all areas.

It certainly poses much more of a threat to life and limb than a few pints of beer or glasses of wine.

The intensified campaign against the rogue drivers of both sexes who use hand-held devices in their vehicles as nonchalantly as if they were sitting on a sofa in the comfort of their homes is to be welcomed.

Good work, boys and girls in blue.

Keep up the pressure on the vehicle vagabonds who put their own and other lives at risk daily, all sometimes for the sake of an inconsequential natter with a friend or acquaintance.