Drink driving crackdown gets into gear
‘Operation Surround’ involves high visibility checkpoints, random breath testing and covert patrols.
Supt Kevin Donohoe said the drink driving operation, which runs until midnight on Monday, will be working alongside normal measures to tackle speeding and dangerous driving. Over the first weekend of the new legislation allowing for the random breath testing of motorists, Supt Donohoe said officers arrested drivers over the limit who may have otherwise gone undetected under the old system.
“Within the first 48 hours of that law becoming available to us we established in the region of just over 200 check-points countrywide, checked in excess of 2,000 vehicles and made 69 arrests,” the superintendent said.
“A key aspect of the arrests is they were satisfied a significant number of those 69 people would not have come to our notice prior to the availability of random breath testing.”
Supt Donohoe said the key message from the operation was simply, ‘if you’re drinking — don’t drive’.
“Our experiences indicate that the majority of drivers do not drink and drive, but there remains a sizeable number who continue to do so, placing their own lives and the lives of others at risk. Drivers who continue to drink and drive will be a focus of concentrated Garda enforcement activities throughout the summer months,” he said.
An average of 344 people are detected drink driving every week, with alcohol playing a factor in almost half of all road deaths.
Supt Donohoe warned people who continue to drink and drive may kill or injure themselves or others, as well as facing the possibility of arrest and conviction.
Over the August Bank Holiday weekend last year, three people lost their lives in road smashes and 12 people involved in collisions were arrested for drink driving offences.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern also called on motorists to drive responsibly over the holiday weekend.
“I would urge all those who use our roads to exercise extra caution, particularly over the August Bank Holiday period when thousands of extra journeys will be made by car and road users travelling on unfamiliar roads,” he said.
On the same weekend in 2000, there were 12 deaths arising from nine fatal crashes.
Random breath testing was just one of a number of new powers and offences brought in under the Road Traffic Act 2006, which came into place during July. The legislation also provided for the introduction of privatised speed cameras and other detection devices.
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