Drink driving ban - Ross needs to up checkpoints

SHANE ROSS’s proposal for an automatic ban on drink drivers is welcome if it saves just one life, but it must be part of a broader-based attempt to reinvigorate efforts to halt the recent rise in road deaths.

Successes in reducing road deaths should be noted. Ireland used to have one of the worst records in Europe for road deaths but reforms, better safety standards and heightened awareness of the dangers have combined to reduce the numbers killed from a height of 640 in 1972 (when there were far fewer cars on the roads) to a low of 161 in 2012.

Yet last year the figure rose again to 188, a 16% increase on 2015, while the first three months of this year have seen a further rise of 10%. Four years ago Mr Ross’s predecessor Leo Varadkar set a target of reducing road deaths to 124 or fewer by 2020. It is hard to see how that can be achieved by simply introducing a ban on drink drivers.