Dublin Police citing more speeders, drunk drivers in the city

Speeding, driving under the influence and distracted driving are the three main reason for citations and accidents during the last three years in the city of Dublin, and the big reason people are being pulled over.

Out of all of these, the number of speeding citations saw big increase in 2025, a year after there was a decline. In 2023, the police issued 1,652 citations before that trend lowered to 1,483 in 2024. That was a different story in 2025.

“We had a massive jump to 2,174 citations last year,” said Cpl. Brian Evans of the Dublin Police Department’s Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic (HEAT). “The higher your speed is, the harder your crash is going to be. If both vehicles are driving a little fast, or just one vehicle driving a little fast, the slower the speed the less momentum you’ve got. That will help as far as injuries go.”

Speed limits in the city are mostly below 50 mph, though Evans points out there are a few areas where it is 55.

“The only areas we have that are higher than 35 are on the state routes like Highway 19, Highway 441 and Highway 80,” Evans said. “The majority of our city streets are no higher than 35 or 45. State law requires that we give 10 over. We aren’t stopping them for two, three or five over. If you see them pulled over, they were easily doing at least 15 over.”

The zones like Hillcrest Parkway and the downtown area include business and residential areas where there are more traffic and pedestrians. Hillcrest Parkway is 35 mph from one end to the other, until school is in session and the speed limit drops to 25 at the start and end of the school day. School buses will begin picking up students for the first day of Dublin City Schools on Aug. 3.

Impaired driving has increased each year with 76 citations in 2023, 94 in 2024 and 158 arrests in 2025. The same was true for distracted driving with 217 three years ago, 342 in 2024 and 709 in 2025. 

“That was a huge increase,” Evans said. “The majority of those were cellphones but it could have also been putting on makeup, going down the road or reading and not paying attention.”

Evans recalled stopping a driver who was messing with their bluetooth speaker instead of paying attention to what was going on in front of the vehicle.

When it comes to total crashes, the city had 844 in 2023. That decreased  to 629 the next year before rising to 715. There were two fatal crashes in 2023, five in 2024 and one last year. So far this year, the city has only had one fatal wreck in 2026. In 2023, there were 178 reported injuries before that number increased to 256 in 2024 and decreased to 198 last year.

For seat belt citations, the city issued 1,496 in 2025. They wrote 887 in 2024 and 1,167 in 2023.

“We had a big increase last year,” Evans said.

When it came to seat belt violations for children, they wrote 260 in 2025, 230 in 2024 and 217 in 2023.

“I just don’t know why people don’t want to properly buckle their kids up,” Evans said.