Gardaí record worrying rise in drink driving

INFORMATION provided by members of the public has helped catch over-the-limit drivers in Kerry and gardaí are calling for more people to pass on information in a bid to clamp down on drink drivers.

Drivers in Kerry are still getting behind the wheel with excess alcohol and are not getting the safety message, Gardaí told a meeting of the Joint Policing Committee on Friday.

“I can’t understand how people drink and get behind the wheel. Drink driving figures are constantly up. There is not a JPC that I go to that they are not up,” said Chief Superintendent Tom Myers.

He said his message to the public was simple: “If you drive with excess alcohol you will be caught”.

This message was reinforced by Inspector Tony Sugrue of the Kerry Divisional Traffic Corps. He said that the increase in driving with excess alcohol is ‘extremely disappointing’ and, worse still, most of the offenders are aged under 40.

The statistics from the first quarter of 2017 compared to the first quarter of 2018 show an eight per cent increase in drink driving in Kerry.

The campaign against drink driving is being led by the traffic corps, which is currently being rebranded by garda management and is now to be known as the road policing unit.

Seven new gardaí have been assigned to the Kerry Traffic Corps and they took up their positions at the end of February. The Kerry division is the only unit in the Southern region to get this many new members.

The Joint Policing Commit- tee meeting also heard that mobile phone use by drivers has also increased. Inspector Sugrue said there was a 34 per cent increase in the number of detected offences this year compared to the first quarter of last year.

Inspector Sugrue also said there is a trend in Kerry that most road accidents are not head-on collisions but rather single vehicle accidents or accidents involved other road users, such as pedestrians and cyclists.

“Enforcement of these accidents is a challenge. Our traffic collision data shows everyone is at risk,” he said.

Statistics show that there has been a 50 per cent increase in the county for non-serious injury accidents – up from 26 in the first quarter of 2017 to 39 this year. There has also been a slight increase in material damage accidents.