Sharp rise in drink driving offences

DRINK driving offences have risen dramatically over Christmas despite the massive publicity campaign to deter drivers from driving while intoxicated.

In the first three weeks of December, there were 977 drink driving arrests. This compares with 900 arrests for the same period last year. Over 1,600 more motorists have been caught speeding, while 503 drivers and passengers were found to be travelling without a seat belt during the first three weeks of the Christmas road safety campaign.

A garda spokesman said that people arrested after the Intoxilyzer test are charged before they leave the garda station and can face losing their licence within weeks.

"Our ongoing checkpoints will be in place over the New Year period and we would again renew our appeal to people to leave the car at home if they intend to go drinking and get a taxi or public transport," he said. The six-week campaign finishes on Sunday, January 8.

The garda spokesman said it was very disappointing that so many people are still getting into cars to drive while under the influence of alcohol.

He said that people going to parties to ring in the New Year should make accommodation arrangements if they do not have any transport home organised.

He said that pro-rata to population, the drink driving problem was not as big in Dublin as in other parts of the country.

This was mainly due to the wider availability of public transport.

There were a total of 207 drink driving arrests throughout the six garda divisions which cover the Dublin area.

The three Cork garda divisions reported a total of 122 drink driving arrests. Of these, 51 detentions were made in the Cork city division alone. While figures for Christmas week are not yet available, an indication of increased figures came in figures showing eight arrests in the city and county on Christmas Day.

Limerick city and county have turned out to be major drink driving black spots over the first three weeks of Christmas with 46 arrests, compared with 36 for the same period last year up around 28%.

The Limerick figures show 13 arrests for the week ending December 4; 16 arrests in the week ending December 11 and 17 in the week ending December 18.

And it was confirmed by Limerick gardaí yesterday that the trend continued last week, with 17 arrests being made in the week in the region up to Christmas Day.

The increase in Christmas drink driving arrests in Limerick is in line with trends so far this year in the division.

Chief Superintendent Willie Keane said that up to the end of November gardaí had about 600 drink driving arrests which represented a 20% increase on the same period last year.