One driver was arrested seven times by gardaí in 2023 on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.
That is according to the 2023 annual report for the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, which also reveals the youngest male driver arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence was aged 13, while the oldest driver was 90.
The report also shows the highest alcohol level found in a driver’s blood in 2023 was 439mg/100ml, which is almost nine times over the legal limit of 50mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood for driving.
In his foreword to the report, director of the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, Prof Denis Cusack, said “the issue of repeat and high-risk intoxicated driving offenders remains to be addressed legislatively, in the prosecutorial process and also in medical rehabilitation”.
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Figures included in the report show two drivers were arrested five times on suspicion of driving under the influence of an intoxicant, while six drivers were arrested four times and 22 were arrested three-times during the 12-month period.
The report states “the level of recidivism detected remains significant, with 243 drivers arrested twice in 2023″.
All samples are sent by gardaí to the Medical Bureau of Road Safety for analysis. Prof Cusack said the number of blood and urine specimens received in 2023 for alcohol analysis by the bureau “continued at a high level” of 5,464, but was 3 per cent less than in 2022.
The number of toxicology specimens analysed last year totalled 3,873, an increase of 80 on the number analysed for drugs in 2022.
The numbers who were breath-tested last year totalled 3,734, down 87 on 2022.
“Alcohol remained the most frequently detected intoxicant in drivers,” said Prof Cusack.
“These figures have sadly changed very little over the past 10 years. Alcohol-intoxicated driving thus remains a very significant danger on Irish roads, with many drivers driving when several times over the legal limits for the different categories of driver, including the lower limits set for the specified drivers.”
For drug intoxicants other than alcohol, the three most commonly detected drugs in 2023 were again cannabis, cocaine and benzodiazepines, he added.
Prof Cusack said the mean levels of cocaine, cannabis types and benzoylecgonine in positive samples were “significantly in excess of the legal limits, reflecting the high levels found in drug-intoxicated drivers which, like alcohol intoxication, are a major contributory factor to road traffic collisions”.
The frequent finding of combinations of drugs and drugs with alcohol also remains of enormous concern, he said.
Males accounted for 86 per cent of blood and urine samples sent to the bureau in 2023. Of the arrested male drivers, 80 per cent are aged under 45, with the largest cohort, at 31 per cent, aged between 25 and 34.
[ Intoxicated driving: 137 motorists arrested over the bank holiday weekendOpens in new window ]
Some 57 per cent of blood and urine specimens had no trace of alcohol.
Prof Cusack said the approval of a number of alcohol ignition interlock devices will be completed this year. The system when installed in a vehicle will prevent it from starting if the driver tests positive for alcohol. It is already in place on a voluntary basis in several bus and truck fleets in the country.
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