SHOCKING NUMBERS DRIVING ON DRUGS
One in seven tested had taken substances
ONE in seven drivers given random roadside drug tests tested positive, shocking new figures show.
Three of the four most common drugs detected were all illegal – cannabis, cocaine and opiates – while the fourth were prescribed sedatives, which can impair driving. Since April last year, 296 drivers have been caught drug driving.
The first figures on the new drug-testing system for drivers show that three people were arrested for refusing to give roadside samples, and that 2,165 drivers have been randomly given drug tests since new drug-driving laws came into force last year.
There were initially plans to
carry out 50,000 drug-driving tests a year, but so far just over 2,000 have been conducted up to the end of last month.
Impairment tests were introduced under the Road Traffic Act (2016), which also gave gardaí powers to test motorists for drugs at the roadside. Gardaí began roadside drugtesting in April 2017.
Under an impairment test, a driver is examined on their ability to carry out a number of co-ordination tasks, including walking in a straight line. Pupil dilation is also checked.
But tough new laws were brought into force in April last year with roadside drug detecting devices now able to detect the presence of cannabis, cocaine and heroin following a simple saliva test at the side of the road.
By comparison, 472,000 alcohol breath tests have been conducted at mandatory roadside checkpoints since April last year, and 2,699 of those tested positive for drink driving. This is a positive rate of less than 0.6%, compared to the 13.7% drug-driving rate.
The Medical Bureau of Road Safety (MBRS) told the Irish Daily Mail that the four drugs most commonly found in drivers’ systems were cannabis, followed by the sedative benzodiazepine – often prescribed with a warning not to drive when taken – then cocaine and opiates.
Until new laws were introduced, gardaí had no roadside test to determine any motor- ists they suspected of driving under the influence of drugs.
Gardaí still have the power to request a urine or blood sample from motorists at a Garda station if they suspect a driver is under the influence of drugs. However, roadside drug tests are only in operation less than two years.
A Garda spokesman told the Mail: ‘296 returned a positive result for the presence of drugs. In addition, a further three people were arrested for failure or refusal to provide an oral fluid sample.’
The drug-driving tests take a sample of saliva, and can check for the presence of cannabis, cocaine, heroin, morphine and benzodiazepines.
The Drager Drug Test 5000 testing device can take up to 15 minutes to analyse a sample and it does not work below a temperature of 4C. In contrast, breath tests for alcohol take about three minutes.
The Irish Daily Mail revealed last year how fewer than 50 roadside drug-testing devices had been given to gardaí to use since the new laws came into force.
And just one in seven gardaí – 1,774 officers out of 13,301 – had been trained to use roadside drug-driving equipment. There are a further 86 station-based drug-driving machines, according to figures from the MBRS.
A Garda spokesman told the Mail at the time: ‘Training in respect of roadside drug testing is currently ongoing. [A total of] 1,774 members of An Garda Síochána nationwide had been trained in the use of this equipment as of the September 22, 2017.’
A spokesman for the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors said that training must be accelerated to get frontline gardaí capable of carrying out the tests ‘as soon as possible’.
Motorists who test positive face a road ban of up to four years, a €5,000 fine and up to six months in prison.
The penalty for drug driving is a minimum one-year driving disqualification if you are found to be above the legal threshold for cocaine, cannabis or heroin.
Drug drivers also face a minimum four-year driving ban if they are found to have drugs in their body and are impaired to such an extent that they do not have proper control of a vehicle.
FIGURES released for the new roadside drug-testing regime show that one in every seven drivers tested have illegal drugs in their system. Out of the 2,165 drivers randomly tested since the drug-driving law came into force in April last year, 296 drivers have tested positive for drug use.
The alarming level of positive results shows that drugs are potentially an even greater scourge on the roads than drink driving. They also highlight the need for greater investment in roadside testing.
The initial plan to carry out 50,000 drugdriving tests a year was scaled back to just over 2,000 tests due to a lack of Garda resources and training. The most recent figures show just one in seven gardaí have been trained in using the drug-testing equipment.
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris’s plan to deploy 200 recent graduates from Templemore to traffic duty was greeted with predictable resistance by the Garda Representative Association. But these figures create a hard-and-fast case for strengthening the Garda Traffic Corps in order to reduce road deaths.
The growing phenomenon of driving while using mobile phones is another grave threat to road safety. This newspaper recently reported that more than 50,000 people have been caught using mobile phones while driving in the past two years – with many taking selfies and live-streaming behind the wheel.
However, enforcement of the legislation governing mobile phone usage is an issue as it was revealed that just nine drivers were prosecuted and three convicted since the law was introduced four years ago.
Efforts to improve road safety are hamstrung by a lack of resources and by difficulties posed by the GRA. As the Christmas party season approaches, it’s imperative that a sound system of deterrence be in place against reckless drivers.
The penalty for drug driving is a minimum one-year road disqualification for those found to be over the legal threshold. But as with mobile phones, stiff penalties are redundant without a proper system of detection and enforcement.