Drink and driving incidents decrease

GARDAÍ recorded more than 1,140 drink driving incidents over Christmas and the New Year, a drop of over 350 cases on the same period last year.

The provisional statistics show 1,149 drink driving incidents were recorded, compared to 1,501. More than 3,000 fixed penalty notices were issued for driving over the speed limit, while 965 motorists were prosecuted for driving while using a mobile.

Assistant commissioner for traffic John Twomey welcomed the reduction but warned that many motorists are not heeding the messages on road safety.

“Over the festive season, An Garda Síochána dedicated considerable time and resources enforcing the Road Traffic Act in a bid to reduce the number of fatal and serious injury collisions on our roads and to stop irresponsible, life-threatening behaviour on our roads.

“Unfortunately, 10 people lost their lives in the month of December and we again plead with all road users to exercise caution while travelling on our roads. We are asking motorists to slow down, to make road safety a priority for 2011,” he said.

Overall, the statistics show a reduction on the number of prosecutions for the same period in 2009 and while the reduction in detections compared to last year may be due, in part, to the adverse weather conditions experienced during the last weeks of 2010, they suggest road users are increasingly complying with the legislation and changing their behaviour to make the roads safer.

Last November saw the roll-out of the new network of Garda mobile safety cameras. They have been in operation on roads where there is a history of speed-related collisions in an effort to reduce the incidence of speed-related deaths and injuries.