'Depression link' to immigrant drink-driving

Foreign nationals living in Ireland may be drink-driving because they are depressed about missing their families, it was claimed tonight.

Four Polish men died instantly when their car struck a truck head-on outside Bandon, Co Cork, on Friday night.

The Polish ambassador to Ireland, Witold Sobkow said tonight that the men were “probably” driving on the wrong side of the road but he didn’t know if alcohol was a factor.

Mr Sobkow said Polish immigrants coming to Ireland found it difficult to adjust to driving on the left side of the road, compared to the right-hand driving in their home country.

“When you take into consideration that a lot of people come to Ireland without their families, you have the spectre of separation which contributes to depression and drinking,” he told RTÉ Radio.

Mr Sobkow pointed out that 26 people of Poland’s 39 million population were killed in road accidents over the Easter weekend period. A total of 1,000 incidents of drink-driving were also detected.

The Easter Bank Holiday death toll on the Republic’s roads reached nine after a 71-year-old man died when he was struck by a car near Ennis, Co Clare, on Monday night.

The weekend death toll is more than twice that of last year and the highest in at least five years.

Traffic Bureau chief, Assistant Commissioner Eddie Rock said that of the 64 drivers killed so far this year, nine were foreign nationals.

A total of 16 other foreign nationals were also among the overall total of 128 deaths.

A further nine foreign nationals were involved in fatal road collisions but survived themselves.

Mr Rock added that there were almost 4,000 offences detected during the first week of the new penalty points regime introduced on April 2.

Mr Rock said he was hopeful about more positive road safety trends with the improvement in the standard of motorways and and the outsourcing of speed cameras.

Four people died on the Republic’s roads last Easter, while five lost their lives in each of the previous three years. Only two died in 2001.

The four Polish men who died outside Bandon were named by gardai as Sylwester Szezyrow, 25, Radoslaw Nowak, 23, Rafal Corski, 28, and Andrzej Wojciechowski, 27, who had been living in Ballincollig, Co Cork.

The lorry driver was treated for shock and minor injuries.