Drunk Road Deaths Decrease

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Irish Voice News

Drunk Road Deaths Decrease

June 7, 2007

By Paddy Clancy

POLICE and road safety campaigners are cock-a-hoop over the success of tough measures introduced less than a year ago to crack down on drunk driving.

The Road Safety Authority (RSA), specially established by the government with semi-retired broadcaster Gay Byrne at the helm to spearhead a campaign to persuade motorists to slow down, reported that road deaths have dropped by a quarter since mandatory breath-testing was introduced last July.

Under the mandatory test system police can breathalyze any motorist without having any reason to suspect the driver may have consumed alcohol.

Previously, officers were forbidden in law from initiating breath tests unless they could prove they suspected the driving was faulty or that they could smell alcohol from a driver.

Following the June bank holiday weekend when just four people died on the roads compared with seven in the same period a year ago, the RSA issued a statement proudly proclaiming there had been 80 fewer deaths recorded in the eleven month period since the introduction of mandatory alcohol testing compared to the previous 11 month period.

Noel Brett, chief executive of the RSA, said, “Over the last 11 months there have been 274 deaths on our roads while the previous 11 months saw 354 deaths.

“It is clear that mandatory alcohol testing has contributed significantly to the number of lives saved - along with high profile awareness campaigns and a greater Garda presence on the roads.”

The RSA statement included details from research conducted by Dr. Declan Bedford, specialist in public health medicine with the Health Service Executive. He found that alcohol was a factor in 36.5% of fatal crashes.

In a detailed study of road accident deaths he found that 38% of pedestrian victims had consumed alcohol, and drunk driving was a predominantly male problem. Almost 90 per cent of drunk drivers involved in fatal accidents were men.

The new RSA figures also indicated that over 600 people have avoided being maimed. For each fatality on the roads approximately another eight people suffer serious injuries.

The RSA said decreases in road deaths also benefit the economy. With the cost of a fatal collision estimated at $3 million, the 80 road fatalities that were prevented could have resulted in a financial saving of $240 million.

A total of 142 people have died on Irish roads to date in 2007 compared to 176 fatalities to the same date in 2006.

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