Another weekend, and another clutch of fatalities on the roads. More hand-wringing all round. What are we to do, we all ask? Lower speed limits, maybe? Tougher driving tests? Restricting the engine size on cars driven by 17-25 year olds?

Well how about this one: getting the cops to implement the measures already in place effectively.

Last Friday morning, (a bright, dry morning,) I was driving to Cork, and as I made my way along an almost empty Portlaoise bypass, I spotted a Garda car up on a cop perch with its occupant doing speed checks. I was tempted to stop and demand why that Garda was wasting taxpayers' money by manning an utterly pointless speed checkpoint. (I didn't, as it would have probably have gotten me in trouble.)

Motorways are by and large, safe roads. The proportion of fatal accidents that happen on motorways, in relation to ordinary roads is quite small. Those that do happen on motorways tend to happen in heavy traffic or in poor weather conditions. The vast majority of fatal accidents happen at night, on non-motorway roads.

I drive up and down the country quite a bit, and the only places I ever see speed checkpoints are on major trunk roads and motorways, almost exclusively in daytime and in dry conditions. I doubt if I am alone in making this observation.

There is no doubt that speed is a major cause of a lot of Ireland's road fatalities. But it seems to me that the Gardai are not tackling speeding effectively. Sure, someone doing 125km/h on the M7 on a dry, bright Friday morning is indeed exceeding the speed limit, but are they driving in an unsafe manner? Motorways are built to take traffic going at higher speeds, which is why their use is restricted to holders of full licences only (well, that's the theory, anyway.) Around where I live are a number of back roads with severe bends and poor surfaces. All of them have a speed limit of at least 80 km/h, but it isn't safe to drive at that speed on them. In fact driving at 80 km/h would be reckless on a number of them. Most people who drive on these roads recognise this and stay between 60 and 70km/h. However, a few go well over the limit, often at night. Do we ever see the cops on these roads? Of course not.

So why are the Gardai not going after the dangerous drivers? Could it be that they are given targets for speeding tickets, and have to achieve them? If this is the case, then they will go for the easiest prey on the roads, as they can be sure of achieving these targets with minimum effort. It's much easier to pick up those that stray a few km/h over the limit on a motorway in broad daylight than it is to monitor a backroad in the pissing rain on a Friday night, in the off-chance that a bunch of tanked-up boy-racers will appear in their souped-up Honda Civics. But it's this group that they should be targetting.

The other question is this: what happens to the money raised by speeding fines? Is it earmarked in advance for a specific purpose, either by the government or the local authorities? If this is the case, then the function of the Gardai as facilitators of road safety policy is undermined, as they would be nothing more than tax collectors in hi-vis jackets.

Maybe that's what the guy on the M7 was doing last Friday. Either that or raising a few bob for the local station's Christmas do.

Councillor Damien Blake in Donegal is running a "Stop the Carnage Week" on his blog, and is asking anyone who writes on the subject to link to his post.