Motorists routinely run red lights in the city, a survey by this newspaper suggests.

The Galway City Tribune witnessed 26 instances of motorists red-light-running at one busy junction during a 30-minute period one evening this August.

Had they been ticketed, the income generated from fines would amount to more than €2,000 – failure to obey a traffic light incurs a fine of €80 and three penalty points.

The survey was conducted at the traffic lights junction at University Hospital Galway on Monday, August 14, from 4.45pm-5.15pm.

There was a mixture of local rush hour traffic in G-registered cars, plus west-bound holiday-makers including several D-regs and vehicles with foreign plates.

During every change in traffic lights sequence, there was at least one driver who broke red lights.

Some were more blatant than others, and instead of stopping they sped up after the traffic lights had turned red.

On a couple of occasions three cars, one after another, went through on red lights.

The biggest offenders were those travelling along University Road and heading left at Tesco onto Newcastle Road or those exiting the hospital and turning right onto Newcastle Road.

On three occasions, cars travelling from Newcastle Road and using the filter lane turning right onto University Road, broke red lights and continued to drive through even though pedestrians had ‘green’ lights.

On two occasions, as Newcastle Road became backed up, cars that were in the left lane on University Road and planning to turn left, appeared to change their minds at the last second as the lights turned red – they then changed direction and continued straight on, through red lights, into UHG.

Pictured: The crossing in Knocknacarra where a motorist ignored a red light, just missing a young family. PHOTO JOE O’SHAUGHNESSY.