Tractors will overtake cars on the main road from Ballinasloe to Ahascragh because the new 60-kilometre-per-hour speed limit was too low, a public representative has claimed.

Galway County Councillor Declan Geraghty (Ind Irl) said reducing the speed limit from 80km/h to 60km/h in recent speed limit bye-law changes was a mistake.

Cllr Geraghty said he travelled the road recently and kept to the 60km/h speed limit but cars behind him got impatient and overtook him.

“Every car passed me out going 80km/h or 100km/h,” he told the March meeting of Ballinasloe Municipal District.

Cllr Geraghty said on a particular stretch of road from Ballinasloe to Ahascragh it was safe to drive at 80km/h, and the lower speed limit was causing driver frustration.

Cllr Geraghty and Cllr Peter Keaveney (FG) said the only winner was the operators of Gatso speed vans who would issue fines to motorists for breaking the limit.

But Cathaoirleach of Ballinasloe MD, Cllr Michael Connolly (FF) said ‘the law is the law’ and elected members had a responsibility to uphold the law.

Cllr Connolly said members ‘can’t have it both ways’ – on the one hand calling for road safety measures while criticising speed limits that were lowered to make roads safer.

The Moylough man said death or serious accidents were a regular occurrence on the country’s roads, and it was Councillors’ responsibility to make them safer.

Cllr Geraghty insisted he was being responsible by highlighting a road with a speed limit that was so low it was dangerous.

Galway County Council’s Senior executive engineer Derek Troy said there was a stretch of road at Killure that was probably safe to drive at 80 km/h but the Department of Transport, when lowering limits on local roads, did not want stretches of road moving to 80km/h for two kilometres and then reverting to 60 km/h. They wanted uniformity in the application of speed limits on each road.

Mr Troy said the road from Ballinasloe to Ahascragh was wide enough to be 80km/h but the reason it was reduced to 60 km/h was because there were too many exits and entrances onto it, which meant it did not pass the test to remain at the higher speed.

New speed limits on local roads – totalling around 5,300 kilometres in Galway – were reduced by 20km/h to 60km/h on February 8.

Only four roads in County Galway remained at 80km/h because they were deemed safe at the higher speeds.

The roads that remain unchanged in the Ballinasloe MD area included 12.8km of the Ballyforan to Mountbellew road and three sections of the Ballygar to Creggs road.

The Department of Transport said the lower speeds would save lives, and was part of Zero Vision, a strategy to achieve zero road deaths or serious injuries by 2050.

Later in 2025, speed limits in urban areas, including housing estates and town centres, will reduce to 30km/h. Speed limits on national secondary roads will also reduce from 100km/h to 80km/h.

Pictured: The Ballinasloe to Killure road THREE mile stretch long straight road where the speed van is situated half way out the road. PHOTO: Gerry Stronge