Wrong-way driving ‘out of control’ amid 32% rise in incidents detected in 2026

Wrong-way driving on Irish motorways is now “out of control”, gardaí have warned, amid a 32 per cent increase in the number of incidents detected in 2026 so far.Cars have been detected driving the wrong way down motorways 62 times so far this year, against 47 such incidents between January and mid-August 2025, data released to The Irish Times shows.“These numbers show that these perpetrators are now out of control,” said Garda Representative Association (GRA) deputy general secretary James Morrisroe.“This is no longer a trend, it’s a clear and present threat to every road user in the country.” The data, from Transport Infrastructure Ireland’s (TII) Motorway Operations Control Centre, shows there were seven wrong-way driving detections between August 1st and 17th – more than in the entire m