Attitude to drink driving must change - Carnage on our roads

EUROPE’S top traffic policeman put it bluntly yesterday when he claimed people were “not listening” as forces across Europe targeted Wednesday as a day without a road death.

The president of Tispol, a European traffic police network, Chief Superintendent Aidan Reid, cited the frightening link between Ireland’s love affair with booze and the seemingly never-ending toll of road deaths, Out of 5,600 people arrested to date in Ireland for drink-driving or driving under the influence, some 56% of them were under the age of 40.

That people are not listening is also graphically borne out by today’s Irish Examiner/ICMSA opinion poll on drink-driving which shows that one person in four admitted driving home after drinking three pints in the past six months, while one in five said they would feel “safe enough” getting behind the wheel after drinking four pints.