Breathalyser tests - Random test small price for safe roads

Before the introduction of random breath testing last summer, the Garda Síochána could not stop and breathalyse a driver without cause to suspect that the person’s driving was impaired.

Drivers who are now asked to submit a breath sample may be still inclined to feel like a suspect.

As more and more drivers are breathalysed in a random way, however, that feeling of suspicion should disappear. It is a small price to pay for safer roads.

There was a distinct drop in the number of road fatalities following the introduction of the random breath test. By the end of the year, it was estimated that some 55 people were alive who would otherwise have been killed on our roads, and hundreds of others avoided being injured or maimed.

For too long the fate of people on the roads was left to chance. With the increase in the number of vehicles in recent years, using the roads was developing into a deadly game of chance.

The Irish Examiner warmly welcomed random breath testing initiative, and has consistently supported its implementation.

When the penalty points system was introduced in 2002, it initially had a dramatic impact, but this seemed to wear off gradually, and there was a danger that a similar complacency might develop in the relation to the old culture of tolerance towards drink-driving.

Over the recent national holiday weekend the Garda Síochána warned that the force would be particularly active on the roads. Yet over 200 drivers were arrested after failing the breath test in the 24 hours between the Saturday and Sunday mornings.

A frightening number of drivers were obviously prepared to take the chance of driving after drinking alcohol. They were not only endangering themselves and their passengers, but also the lives of totally innocent people minding their own business.

The ultimate proof of the effectiveness of random breath testing will not be the arrest of more people each year, but the noticeable decline that should take place in those numbers if the whole thing is enforced with determination. The ultimate goal should be to persuade all drivers that it is not worth the risk of driving with excess alcohol, because they will inevitably be caught. This should apply to everybody.

Anybody stopped and breathalysed on our roads is entitled to a presumption of innocence.

Garda Superintendent Jim Fitzgerald, who was recently put in charge of the Regional Traffic Division, is no exception. Therefore, nobody should jump to any conclusions in relation to his behaviour.

But there is one very healthy conclusion that should be drawn. The fact that a person of his high rank in the Garda Síochána was stopped and tested by junior colleagues should be a potent message that the gardaí are prepared to stop and breathalyse anybody.

In a republic nobody is above the law, and our laws should be enforced without fear or favour.

If this signifies a new dawn in our republic, it is a welcome one.