Action needed as drink driving fatalities rise

ALMOST A THIRD OF FATAL CRASHES INVOLVED ALCOHOL

THE anti drink driving message is not getting through to a new generation of drivers and more needs to be done to communicate the serious threat to lives from being behind the wheel under the influence.

That’s the message from Louth County Council’s Road Safety officer, Adrian O’Sullivan, who spoke last week after new statistics from Garda headquarters revealed that 31% of people killed in road crashes in 2014 had alcohol in their system at the time of their deaths.

In addition, Gardai reported a 13% increase in ‘driving under the influence’ arrests so far this year and said that March is the second most dangerous month of the year for alcohol related collisions.

The analysis also found that a third of drivers/motorbike riders who died in fatal crashes in 2014 had a positive toxicology for alcohol; 35% of car drivers killed had a positive toxicology for alcohol; 40% motorcyclists killed had a positive toxicology for alcohol; 28% of pedestrians killed had a positive toxicology for alcohol and a massive 96% of the drivers/motorcycle riders who had a positive toxicology were male.

Mr O’Sullivan said the new figures made for grim reading. He said the last available report that looked at fatal crashes from 2008-2012 and which included a break-down for Louth, showed that 33 people died in crashes on the county’s roads in those four year - ten of which were alcohol related.

He said: ‘It’s a problem in Louth, like everywhere else in the country and while drink driving rates had been going down a few years ago, there seems to be a bit of slippage on that rate’.

Mr O’Sullivan said there may be a number of factors to the creeping higher of the drink driving rates, including the reduction in Garda enforce- ment. He said: ‘ There may be a perception that you won’t get caught if you drink and drive, but the Gardai have recently announced the Traffic Corps is to be increased by 10% and I would welcome that’.

He also pointed to the fact the Transport Minister Shane Ross is considering a ban for anyone caught with any alcohol in their system and it ‘is being debated around the country’. The Road Safety Officer said a recent survey showed that more than nine out of ten people want to see anyone who is detected with drink on them behind the wheel to be banned, but the message is still not getting through, especially to young male drivers aged 18 to 34.

Mr O’Sullivan said a number of agencies, including local authorities, have their parts to play in order to get the message across. He said it is a long term project and it will not happen overnight, but ‘ there needs to be peer pressure’ so that drink driving is no longer acceptable among this group.

In addition, people ‘ have to take responsibility for themselves and what they do’.