Extra policing for Rally of the Lakes, celebrating it's 38th annual event
The Garda Air Support Unit will be deployed to cover the Rally of the Lakes so it can respond to any incident “throughout the county” at short notice.
Additional resources from throughout the Garda Southern Region will be drafted in, including traffic units as well as the Garda Incident Command unit.
Covert CCTV is also being placed in known boy-racing and public-order hotspots.
Hosted by the Killarney and District Motor Club, the 2017 Cartell.ie International Rally of the Lakes is one of the biggest weekends of the year in the south-west and is particularly challenging from a policing point of view.
Some classic stages recced today @RallyoftheLakes - Molls Gap, Healy Pass, Cods Head and Ardgrom! pic.twitter.com/tdb1g4QJJU
— Alastair Fisher (@alastair_fisher) April 27, 2017
As well as traffic and road closures, high levels of policing is required to deal with the hundreds of so-called boy and girl racers who descend on the town, gathering to act out stunts on national and other routes late at night.
Dozens of vehicles are regularly seized each year and several people were before the courts in 2015 and 2016 following a crackdown by gardaí, which resulted in contributions of €2,500 to the court poor box. Speed limiters are also ordered for those caught doing dangerous stunts.
“As with recent years, An Garda Síochána will be adopting a zero-tolerance approach to all instances of dangerous driving, illegal driving activity, and defective vehicles,” the force said in a statement.
Those who breach the Public Order Act or engage in antisocial behaviour will experience a tough approach again this year, said gardaí in Killarney.
K - Kelly. Donagh & Conor Foley, Winners of rally past 2 years in Focus. Also won class (2L 8V) in Mk1 in Historics last Dec #cleansweep pic.twitter.com/Yvmb4rsEN4
— KDMC (@RallyoftheLakes) April 26, 2017
The course takes in much of south Kerry and west Cork over two days and gets under way with a ceremonial start to the 38th rally in Killarney town centre at 7pm tomorrow.
The real action will begin early on Saturday from the Moll’s Gap stage, followed by the Tim Healy Pass and onto Castletownbere Pier.
Sunday’s action starts at Moll’s Gap again, followed by service at the Liebherr-Container Cranes base in Killarney. The crews will then complete a loop of three stages — Kilgobnet, Caragh Lake, and Rockfield — before heading into service again at Liebherr.
The rally finishes at the Gleneagle Hotel at approximately 5.30pm.
