Gardaí praised on weekend free of road deaths
A total of 861 people were arrested for drink driving in the week preceding and following the June bank holiday weekend. That compared to 724 in the period around the May bank holiday weekend.
Between June 4-10, 445 people were caught drink driving — that’s up by 30 on the previous week.
Brian Farrell of the Road Safety Authority said the increased detection rates did not necessarily mean there are more people drink driving but that there was an increased level of garda testing being carried out.
He said that was being reflected by the decreasing number of road deaths.
“With increased powers there are increasing numbers of people being caught,” he said.
“There are now 30,000 tests being done each month. In May, there were 22 deaths on the roads. The figure for May has not been that low for five years. We have just come off a weekend when there were no fatalities. That is unprecedented, something that has not been achieved for many years. There has been a drop in the number of road deaths by a quarter since mandatory testing was introduced in July.”
Studies have shown that as many as 37% of road deaths are as a direct result of alcohol consumption.
Up to June 11 this year, 146 people were killed on Irish roads and there were 131 collisions.
That compares to 180 road deaths and 154 collisions in the corresponding period last year.
In 2006, gardaí were averaging 250 drink-driving arrests each week and this year it is averaging at 400 per week.
Mr Farrell said there was still a hard-core group who continue to break the law.
“However, the number of people who now feel it is acceptable to drink and drive has fallen. Our latest survey showed that 62% of people said people should never drink and drive. That compares to 40% in 2002. Others have also modified the amount of alcohol they are consuming before driving.”
Chief Superintendent John Farrelly of the Garda Traffic Division said the fact there had been more than 400 detections in each of the last two weeks showed “the problem is not going away”.
He said the country is entering what is traditionally the worst three months of the year as there is more alcohol consumed over the summer period.
“July is one of the worst months. Last year there were 39 people killed on the roads in July alone and the year before there were 41,” he said.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that thousands of unqualified motorists are driving on Irish roads with their sixth, seventh, eighth or even ninth provisional licence.
The data shows 2,918 drivers are permitted to drive on our roads with their seventh licence, 262 on their eighth and six on their ninth.
