Conviction rate for drink drivers at lowest in six years

THE conviction rate for people who tested positive for driving over the legal alcohol limit has fallen to its lowest level since 1999.

The latest annual report of the Medical Bureau of Road Safety (MBRS) shows just 24% of motorists, whose blood or urine tested positive in 2004, were convicted for drink driving compared to an average of 63% for the preceding five years.

A total of 834 people were convicted for drink driving in 2004, although the MBRS confirmed that 3,472 motorists who gave blood and urine samples were over the limit.

The MBRS has also measured record levels of use of illegal and prescribed drugs including cannabis, cocaine, tranquillisers and opiates by drivers.

Separately, the Irish Examiner has established that only half of people convicted for dangerous driving causing death spend any time in prison.

Figures compiled by the MBRS - which analyses on behalf of the State specimens taken from people arrested for drink driving - show that only one-in-three drivers who provide breath samples over the legal limit are successfully prosecuted for the offence.

UCD Professor of Forensic and Legal Medicine Denis A Cusack, a director of the MBRS, said there was no apparent explanation for the dramatic decrease in convictions for people who tested over the legal limit from blood and urine samples.

“It raises serious questions about the effectiveness of road traffic legislation,” said Prof Cusack.

However, he acknowledged that some of the decline in the conviction rate for positive breath tests over recent years could be explained by the adjournment of a large number of cases due to legal challenges to breath-testing equipment.

Although prosecution in court does not always occur in the year in which the sample was analysed, the figures are nevertheless representative of the outcome of cases.

Justice Minister Michael McDowell said it was practice to apply for an appropriate summons upon receipt of a certificate from the MBRS that blood/ urine specimens exceeded the legal limit.

“I have been informed by the garda authorities that there is no undue delay in instituting proceedings where the blood, urine and breath level exceeds the legal limit,” he said.

The 2004 report, due to be published shortly, reveals that motorists arrested on suspicion of drink driving recorded average levels almost 120% above the legal limit.

Over half of 4,100 blood and urine specimens analysed were twice or more above the legal limit.

A total of 8,058 breath specimens were taken in garda stations during 2004. They recorded that 80% of certified breath tests were over the legal limit with three-in-10 specimens being over twice the legal limit.

The MBRS also found that 354 of 569 samples, or 62%, tested positive for one or more drugs.

Traces of cannabis were found in 114 drivers (up 570% on 2000 figures) while 48 drivers tested positive for cocaine - a six-fold increase over the same period.

Previous research by the MBRS showed over 15% of drivers test positive for some drug which can impact on their driving ability.