Bereaved mother makes plea over drink driving disgrace

Drink driving in Ireland is a bigger problem than ever a campaigner tonight claimed, after it emerged 15% more people were arrested over the Christmas period than the previous year.

Gardaí arrested 1,867 people for being over the limit during their six-week anti-drink driving operation over Christmas, compared to 1,622 people the previous year.

Gertie Shields, whose daughter was killed by a drunk driver, said it was a disgraceful statistic but probably only the tip of the iceberg.

She said successive governments had failed to tackle the issue of drink driving.

“It’s a life or death issue and it’s getting more and more horific. Where is it going to end and how much more can people take?”

The number of people killed on the roads over the Christmas period was 48, compared to 42 for the previous Christmas.

Ms Shields, who runs the Mothers Against Drink Driving group, said that the 399 people who were killed on the roads last year were more than just a statistic.

“But there’s no concern from the general public. It’s as though it was par for the course. I think that if that many people died from bird flu, there’d be an absolute outcry,” she said.

Her 19-year-old daughter Paula was killed in 1983, along with five of her friends, in an accident caused by a drunken lorry driver in Drogheda, Co Louth.

“We as a family have suffered. It’s a life sentence. But drink driving is sometimes treated as a motoring offence,” said Mrs Shields.

“I think some people think that it’s never going to happen to them. But unfortunately it can happen to anybody.”

She called on the Government to either immediately introduce legislation for random breath testing or to hold a referendum.

“Almost every country in Europe has random breath testing. It’s just us and England that haven’t. It’s not good enough to put it on the long finger,” she said.