A six-week campaign to crack down on drunken driving got under way yesterday and the Garda Commissioner, Mr Noel Conroy, has pledged that members of the force will be highly visible this Christmas as they operate new powers of detection and prosecute offenders.
Fear of being caught and punished has been shown to be the only real spur to compliance for many motorists who drink and drive. And the determination of Mr Conroy to ensure the activities of the Garda Síochána bring about a safer festive season should be welcomed by all. In the past, road deaths and serious injuries have cast a pall over Christmas for hundreds of families.
New regulations will allow members of the Garda to demand a breath test from any motorist they believe may have committed an offence under the wide-ranging Road Traffic Acts. Heretofore, they had to form a legal view that a motorist was incapable of driving safely because of the consumption of alcohol before they could administer a breath test. The result of that restriction meant that 91 per cent of those tested last year were well over the legal limit and half of them had consumed more than twice the permitted amounts of alcohol. Every week, more than 200 motorists are found to be driving while drunk.
The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, signed new regulations last week providing the Garda with greater flexibility in administering breath tests. A Road Traffic Bill, due in the Dáil next year, will extend those regulations and permit the Garda to conduct random breathalyser checks, as was originally promised in the Government's road safety strategy of 1998.
The delay in introducing this measure has echoes in the failure of the Government to reduce the huge number of provisional drivers through an effective testing system. Failures on the administrative front are compounded by the near-invisibility of the Garda as enforcers of the traffic laws - outside of special campaigns - because of a shortage of resources. The agreed increase of 2,000 in the numbers of Garda has not materialised. And there is no sign of the promised, dedicated traffic corps. Instead, the workload of the Garda has been significantly increased under the penalty points system by the actions of Mr Brennan, while the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, is left to fight for the necessary finances.
The chairman of the National Safety Council, Mr Eddie Shaw, has consistently argued that any expenditure by the Government on road safety would be more than recouped through savings in the lives of productive citizens and in hospital costs. He welcomed the extension of the breath test powers for the Garda and said lives would be saved this Christmas and many serious injuries would be avoided because of enforcement.
Enforcement is the key. There is something perverse about a law enforcement system that is based on sporadic "campaigns". It suggests the offence of drunken driving does not warrant efforts at year-round eradication. That situation must change.