A concerted no-nonsense road safety operation is being mounted by the PSNI across Northern Ireland today (Thursday).
It comes in a bid to help reduce the growing number of fatalities on our roads.
Police hope to drive home the message as the winter nights approach.
Officers will be “robustly enforcing the law” during Thursday’s action.
Motorists can expect to see police officers in marked and unmarked cars.
Motorbikes and bicycles will perform a range of duties, including authorised roadside vehicle checkpoints, together with the deployment of safety camera partnership vehicles throughout the day.
Chief Inspector Diane Pennington said that tragically so far this year, 39 people have been killed in road traffic collisions, while many more have received life-changing injuries.
She said: “In every policing district across the country today, local and neighbourhood policing teams, together with road policing officers, are running operations designed to address the issues which cause the most harm on our roads.
“With inattention, excessive speed for the conditions and drink or drug driving, consistently the main causes of the most serious collisions in which people are killed or seriously injured, officers will be running focused operations in hotspot areas to detect road users taking unnecessary and potentially life-changing risks.
“Police will robustly enforce the law to make Northern Ireland’s roads safer, but all road users must share the responsibility to prevent deaths and injuries on our roads.
“Pedestrians must pay attention to their environment, whether that means not getting distracted by friends or mobile devices, or being especially careful when walking on country roads by walking against the traffic flow or by wearing highly visible clothing.
“Motorists also need to be mindful of pedestrians, especially along unlit country roads as the darker nights approach.
“Our road safety message is very simple. All we ask is that drivers slow down, do not drive after drinking or taking drugs, wear a seatbelt, drive with greater care and attention and don’t use mobile phones while driving.”
