GARDAI will mount more road checkpoints than ever this Christmas in response to an increasing trend in drunken driving and road deaths this year.
Drunken driving convictions are substantially up on last year and the number of road deaths so far this year is 23 more than for the same period in 1995.
In response, the Garda Siochana is mounting a greater effort than ever to prevent traffic offences and reduce accidents, the Garda Deputy Commissioner, Mr P.J. Moran, said yesterday.
He was speaking at the announcement of the annual Christmas Road Safety Campaign to highlight the need for greater safety awareness on the roads during the festive season. The campaign was opened by the Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin.
Mr Moran said gardai would mount 41,000 road checks during the eight weeks of the Christmas period. The chances that anyone who drank and drove in that time would be caught and convicted were "very, very high indeed".
He said that so far in 1996, the number of people prosecuted for drinking and driving was 440 up on last year. "This means that the numbers drinking and driving are going up. Some of the public are beginning to relax far too much in their attitude to drinking and driving and all I can say is that we will have 41,000 checkpoints out there. You will be a lucky man or woman if you get through those if you are driving and you have taken a drink."
Gardai have organised a national response to the rise in road traffic accidents. The worst rates of road deaths are in the Louth Meath, Carlow Kildare, Dublin South and Galway west Garda divisions. Carlow Kildare has possibly the worst record with more than 40 deaths this year.
The concentration of road deaths is occurring in the expanding population areas around Dublin where there is a massive increase in the amount of traffic on roads not properly designed to handle it.
The Garda programme to counter road traffic offences involves greater enforcement of patrolling and prosecution; emphasis on educating the driving public about safety awareness; and co ordination with roads authorities about improving conditions on stretches of road where accidents and offences are occurring.
The Deputy Commissioner said yesterday that Garda divisions had designed their own initiatives to reduce accidents and offences. Particular emphasis was being placed on trying to encourage pedestrians and cyclists to take greater care on roads and to wear bright clothing in the dark.
Last year, when the numbers of drivers breath tested fell to 13,916, the numbers of road, deaths stood at 437. On average just under a half of drivers tested by gardai were proved to have drunk more than the legal limit.
However, there has been a significant decline in the ratio of road deaths to car numbers in the past 25 years, it was pointed out. In 1972, when there were 500,000 cars on Irish roads, there were 640 road deaths. Last year, with 1.25 million cars on the road, there were 437 deaths.