New roadside cameras could be introduced to catch motorists using mobile phones while driving.
The new technology is being considered by Gardai in a bid to cut down the number of people illegally on their phones.
The Irish Times reports that Chief Superintendant Michael Hennebry, recently appointed head of the Garda National Roads Policing Bureau, confirmed the technology is now under consideration.
“We are looking at some technology that might be coming down the tracks,” he told The Irish Times.
The “camera-based” technology would take pictures suitable for use as evidence of an offence, he said.
Despite detections, a problem for gardaí has long been the ability to prove somebody was on their phone while driving.
“There is technology out there that can assist us,” Mr Hennebry said.
“But again the key to this is changing driver behaviours and the technology, whilst it will detect people potentially driving whilst using the phone, the key for us is that people change their behaviour and become compliant and just put the phone down while driving.”
One in ten drivers now admit to using their phone to text and access apps behind the wheel but the number of thought to be much higher.
For the first six months of this year there have been 13,000 detections across the country, up 13% on the same period last year.
