Thousands of Irish lorries are to be pulled over for checks in the coming year in a major crackdown on dangerous driving. Among the findings of the survey, which was carried out by the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA), was that Irish lorry drivers regularly exceed the recommended number of hours they are allowed to drive without taking a break.

In one case, the study stated, "the driver of an articulated lorry and trailer from the Republic of Ireland was examined and it was discovered that he had been driving for the previous 15 days consecutively, even though the maximum number of days allowed for driving consecutively is five. The driver was on his way to France."

Irish drivers were also found to be driving unroadworthy vehicles with mechanical faults and vehicles that were overloaded.

Dell Evans, the VOSA manager who is leading the campaign against dangerous trucks said: "We have an initiative at the moment targeted at heavy goods vehicles and drivers as they are the ones that constitute the highest risk on our roads.

"For quite a while we have experienced non-compliance with safety rules by Southern Irish vehicles. We are targeting trucks that travel through the southeast of England as most of these are going through this area on the way to the continent."

More than one-third of Irish drivers were found to be exceeding the maximum number of safety hours in the study, which was carried out last month in the southeast of England. More than a quarter had overloaded their trucks. A staggering 55.93% of Irish trailers attached to the back of lorries were found to be unroadworthy.

"The problem is that a large number of European countries carry out few, if any, roadside mechanical inspections, " Evans said. "We have a particular problem with lorries from Ireland, Poland, and some smaller eastern European countries."

He maintains that offending rates were not likely to fall significantly until inspectors had the power to impose on-the-spot fines on foreign lorry drivers and clamp those who refuse to pay.

Nobody from the Irish Road Haulage Association was available for comment when contacted by the Sunday Tribune.

VOSA plans to make a five-fold increase in the number of checks on foreign lorries in the coming year.