Annual drink-driving crackdown in full swing

Anton McNulty

Mandatory alcohol testing checkpoints are in operation throughout the western region both night and day over the Christmas period, with Gardaí stating they are using ‘covert enforcement’ to target drivers.
The Garda Western Region launched their annual Christmas Road Safety Campaign two weeks ago. They will be focusing on detecting drink drivers and speeding along, as well as cars with defective lighting and drivers who use mobile phones while driving.
“The objective of the Garda enforcement operation is to reduce road traffic collisions, save lives, and reduce injuries and to remind drivers of the dangers of speeding on our roads,” said Superintendent Noel Kelly, the western regional traffic superintendent.
The campaign comes after Gardaí revealed that nationally there has been a 35 percent increase in the number of detections nationally in December compared to 12 months ago.
The enforcement operations will consist of additional deployment of personnel across the Western Garda Region over the Bank Holiday period. The operations will consist of Mandatory Alcohol Testing Checkpoints both during daylight and at night, the use of all speed enforcement technologies such as laser handheld devices, robot vans, in-car detection systems and Go Safe vehicles in the various speed enforcement zones.
To complement this, Supt Kelly said there will also be an element of ‘covert enforcement’, targeting drink driving, dangerous driving, distraction driving and speeding.
According to the Gardaí, 341 motorists have already been caught drink driving in the first two weeks of the annual seasonal crackdown.

Warning
The Western Garda Region covers counties Mayo, Galway, Longford, Roscommon and Clare and to date 28 people have lost their lives on the road in this region – four in Co Mayo.
“An Garda SíochΡna want to ensure that those numbers do not increase over the Christmas and New Year period, so that families do not have to suffer as a result of the death of a loved one because of a road traffic collision,” Supt Kelly said.
“Motorists are advised that inappropriate speed, drink driving, seatbelts, poor vehicle lighting and faulty tyres are the greatest contributory factors to road deaths.”
Last December, there were 14 detections for drink driving in Co Mayo with 26 drivers detected for using their mobile phone, 20 for speeding and nine for failing to wear seat belts.
The recent increase in drink driving arrests has led a Ballina funeral director to warn of the dangers and consequences of drink driving.
David McGowan has produced a video clip to share on social media asking people not to get the wheel when they have been drinking, saying he doesn’t want to be the one to drive people home in his professional role as an undertaker.
“I want to instill in people before they get into a car with a driver who speeds or someone who may be under the influence, or have taken drugs, to stop and think, because you have all this trauma and devastation that you bring on your family and on the whole community if there is an accident,” said Mr McGowan.
Noel Gibbons, Road Safety Officer, Mayo County Council, added: “The message in the campaign is that drink-driving destroys lives, families and communities. As the festive season approaches, stark warnings have been issued to road-users about the consequences of drink-driving.”

Leading Light
Meanwhile a Westport person was one of the winners in the Road Safety Authority ‘Leading Lights in Road Safety’ awards ceremony. Andrew Irwin, Knappaghbeg, Westport, son of Christy and Mairéad Irwin, won a judges award for Technology & Innovation in Road Safety for his Drive Safe app.
Andrew created a road safety app that detects when the user is driving and automatically sets your phone to ‘drive mode’ as well as issue an auto response to those trying to contact the driver. The DriveSafe app was released to the Google Play Store in October 15 and has since been used nearly 50,000 times by 8,000 people in 123 countries.
Andrew used his own coding experience to create the app. Although DriveSafe is currently available on Android only, following its early success, Andrew has started to design an iOS version for use on iPhones.