Laois TD's car overtaken by 70km/h speeding e-bike

A Laois TD has raised road safety concerns after being overtaken in his car by an e-bike rider speeding about 70km/h.

Deputy Brian Stanley described the incident as he raised the need for several different Laois road safety measures in the Dáil with the Minister for Transport, Energy, Climate and the Environment, Darragh O'Brien.

“I am in favour of e-bikes but now some of them are higher powered than motorbikes. If anyone here ever had a Honda 50 or a Honda 100, they had to have tax, insurance and a driver's licence for it. People can now have an e-bike that can do 70 km/h and 80 km/h.

“One passed me the other day and I was doing 65 km/h. He flew passed me on an e-bike that had tires the width of a good motorbike. That cannot be allowed to continue. We have to regulate them. People who drive them need to be licensed, taxed and insured. We should also make sure they know the rules of the road. We cannot continue like this. I also support the legislation on scrambler bikes," Dep Stanley said.

He also highlighted safety on the N80 in Arles and Mountmellick and also calls for "proper" 60km signs on rural roads in Laois.

“Traffic volumes are up, speeds are up, and mobile phone use is up. I want to highlight the N80 that goes through Laois.

“Safety measures are needed in the village of Arles, which local councillors and local people have been years looking for.

“I handed in petitions to Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, and Laois County Council demanding that traffic calming measure be put at each end of the village and that it be made safer for pedestrians with a pedestrian crossing, proper footpaths and improved signage. Laois County Council made a submission to TII long ago but it is not being funded. I want the Minister of State to take note of this. This needs to be funded by the Department and by TII.

“Drinagh, which is in the Mountmellick area, is on the N80 and also needs some traffic calming measures where traffic is coming from the west and into Mountmellick town.

“I want to raise the issue of local roads. We reduced the speed limit on local roads to 60 km/h, and this is a bone of contention for me.

“In my naivety, I thought we would see 80 km/h signs being removed and being replaced with 60 km/h signs all over the country. However, we got a white sign with lines across it. The only person in this room who can probably tell me what that means is the Ceann Comhairle because she is a former truck driver.

“I asked a number of TDs if they knew what the sign means and none of them did. We are the people who made the laws. Those signs are ineffective and need to be changed. We need a 60 km/h sign.

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“We are asking for a bit of common sense here. Stripped lines across a white background do not tell people anything. The figure 60 tells them that this is the maximum speed. This is a common-sense measure.

“The speeds on local roads in Laois are crazy. There is a cohort of drivers driving like lunatics on them and that needs to stop," Dep Stanley said.