Road Safety Authority: Ban motorists who drink and drive

There is “concrete evidence” to support the introduction of an automatic three-month disqualification for anybody caught drink driving, the Road Safety Authority has claimed.

RSA spokesman Brian Farrell said a review of 2014 road fatalities from closed coroner files by the Health Research Board shows that nine people died (22.5%) where the level of alcohol detected was at the lower end of the scale.

In seven of the fatalities (17.5%) the blood alcohol level (BAC) was 50mg or less, while the BAC was 51mg to 80mg in two other cases. “That concretes our case — people are dying at lower levels of alcohol consumption,” said Mr Farrell.