merrion street

Picture shows Transport Minister Leo Varadkar with Luas operator Eddie Byrne

• To date this year, there have been 13 incidents with motorists and trams.
• In 2013 there were 38 collisions between motorists and trams.
• In 2012 there were 24 collisions between motorists and trams.

Transport Minister Leo Varadkar, Luas operator Transdev, Railway Procurement Agency and An Garda Síochána have combined forces to appeal to motorists to stop breaking Red lights.

To show the public “What the Harm Is” the name associated with today’s awareness campaign, Luas has made CCTV footage available to view on-line.

Luas is particularly concerned that the figures are on the increase. The trams are very much a part of Dublin’s transport infrastructure and this type of motorist behaviour is a worrying trend. “What’s the Harm” is an advertising campaign aimed at educating motorists that breaking lights and colliding with Luas may result in serious injury or kill someone.

Minister Varadkar said:

Breaking a red light is one of the most dangerous things any motorist can do, and driving through a red light at a Luas junction is both irresponsible and stupid. There have been 13 incidents between motorists and trams this year, and one loss of life. This new awareness campaign aims to prevent further incidents. Under a new pilot scheme starting later this year, Gardaí will be able to initiate prosecutions using CCTV footage of motorists who break red lights.

Brian Brennan – Managing Director of Transdev said:

Whilst it is important to assure customers how safe the system is to travel on we must now at the start of summer target gambling motorists. We must reduce the number of emergency brakes the trams are forced to make because of reckless motorist behaviour, we must reverse this trend so that we do not face a summer of further pain and suffering.

In order to drive the message home to motorists about the potential consequences of breaking Red lights and the impact with the tram Transdev and Railway Procurement Agency have released CCTV footage which can be viewed on the Luas

.