Alcohol is a contributory factor in more than one third of all fatal road crashes each year, the National Safety Council (NSC) has warned.
The council said drunken pedestrians could be contributing to their own death in a quarter of all fatal road accidents that involve pedestrians.
The NSC yesterday advised pedestrians and motorists on the dangers of alcohol when using roads over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend.
"As many as 20 pedestrians could be dying on our roads each year as a result of walking into the path of an oncoming vehicle and lying on unlit rural roads all brought on by the excessive consumption of alcohol," the chief executive of the NSC, Mr Pat Costello, said.
