MINISTER FOR Transport Leo Varadkar is being urged to make it compulsory to install “alcolocks” – which immobilise an engine if a driver is over the drink-driving limit – on all public service vehicles.
At a seminar on the devices in Dublin this week delegates will be told that alcolocks are mandatory on school vehicles in Finland.
The units test a driver’s breath for alcohol, in a method similar to that carried out by gardaí.
The Minister said last month that the Government is “considering the possibility of using alcohol interlock and intelligent speed assistance systems, as well as new awareness courses, in order to tackle repeat offenders”.
One coach hire company, which was the first in Ireland to install the devices on its entire fleet, says the Minister should now make them mandatory “in all public service vehicles”.
“We want them fitted before something bad happens. The public in Ireland should have the safest possible mode of transport,” said Paddy Matthews, managing director of Matthews Coach Hire.
In 2008 the devices were attached to immobiliser units on all 34 vehicles in its fleet and Noel Matthews, fleet manager, admits that in the first month two drivers failed the breath test.
“It was the morning after the night before and there is no point denying it,” he said.
The company has 70 drivers and they are quite happy to have to pass the test, in front of passengers, before they can put the key in the ignition. One of its drivers, Patrick Quinn, said, “You get used to doing it. I think it should be in every car as well.”
The alcohol limit set by the company is below the legal limit of 9 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath for professional drivers. The company carries 4,000 people a day.
On Thursday Mr Matthews will address the Safe and Sober Transport seminar organised by the European Transport Safety Council.