Drink ‘bigger killer than estimated’
“We know that at least 33% of collisions resulting in deaths on roads is due to alcohol but I would say that is a gross underestimation,” said Dr Conor Egleston at a press conference in Dublin organised by the lobby group. He said a pathologist who conducts post mortems in Louth had told him that alcohol was responsible for more than half of all road deaths in the region.
Dr Egleston, who works in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, also revealed that a man in his early 50s had attended the hospital’s A&E section 141 times between 1996 and 2004. All of the attendances were alcohol-related. He also saw a 14-year-old boy drinker who had two alcohol-related attendances on days when he should have been at school.
Publican TD John Moloney, who chairs the Joint Committee of Health and Children, said he was backing Alcohol Action Ireland’s call on the Government to tackle alcohol abuse.
AAI chairperson Marion Rackard said a change in our approach to alcohol was essential.
