THE NUMBER of motorists found to have been drink-driving over the May bank holiday weekend was up by more than one-third on last year, according to the Garda.
A total of 470 drink-drivers were detected over the weekend compared with 346 such detections last year.
There were 576 drink-driving incidents recorded in the week from April 28th to May 4th, which is more than 200 more incidents than the previous week.
However, there was one road death this May bank holiday weekend compared with six road deaths last year. A 20-year-old man was killed in a single vehicle crash in Kilcogy, Co Cavan, on Sunday morning.
“While it is disappointing to see such large numbers of people being detected for drink-driving, it is encouraging to see such high levels of Garda enforcement which is also reflected in the drop in road deaths over the last few bank holiday weekends,” Road Safety Authority spokesman Brian Farrell said yesterday.
Some 954 motorists were found to have been drink-driving over the St Patrick’s Day and Easter holiday fortnight. So far this year, there have been 99 road fatalities, compared with 116 by this date last year, a drop of 17, said Mr Farrell.
A Garda campaign was mounted over the weekend which included extra gardaí to clamp down on drink-driving and speeding, with extensive checkpoints for random breath tests.
The authority ran an advertising campaign last weekend to highlight the dangers of driver fatigue, which it says is shown to be as dangerous as driving over the limit.
Last week, the Government published a study by the authority which recommended the blood/ alcohol concentration be lowered to 50mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood, down from the current level of 80mg per 100ml.