Detection of drink-driving at checkpoints has fallen significantly

THE INCIDENCE of drink-driving detected at checkpoints has fallen significantly since the introduction of random breath-testing in July 2006, new Garda figures show.

Some 2 per cent of drivers tested two-years ago recording positive readings compared to 0.5 per cent of tested drivers last month.

Garda Assistant Commissioner Eddie Rock said previously statistics for lower detection rates were often ascribed – correctly or not – to lower enforcement. By expressing the number of failures as a percentage of total breathalyser tests, the Garda believe they have a more accurate picture of compliance rates.

“This is the first real indication that whether it is 5,000 or 500 tests, there is a serious improvement in the attitude of drivers towards compliance,” he said. The assistant commissioner said the change was also being revealed in the reducing numbers of people being killed on Irish roads which showed a further drop in the first half of this year.

According to provisional figures the numbers killed in crashes in the six months to the end of June was 127, some 13 less that the similar period in 2008.

If continued the trend would see road fatalities drop to about 253 for the year – a second successive record low, since record keeping began.

But the gardaí admitted that they still have a difficulty with drivers in the 16 to 30 years age group who are highly represented in the fatalities.

Mr Rock said it was also difficult to prove drug-driving. He pointed out that one cannabis cigarette can be traced in a person’s system for up to 28 days and its detection at that time could not be relied upon as proof of impairment to drive.

He described the situation as being similar to the early days of drink driving when doctors had to certify that in their opinion the individual was not fit to drive. “The person who comes up with a simple test like the intoxiliser will be wealthy,” he said.

The commissioner also revealed that the gardaí have taken delivery of more then 100 new automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) systems which can instantly read the registrations of passing cars. Information from the Irish Insurance Federation on whether cars are currently insured is updated on the Garda pulse system at 4am each day and the ANPR can instantly tell if a car is insured.

In a similar way the machines, which are currently being fitted to traffic corps vehicles, can tell if cars are taxed.

They can also be programmed to detect stolen vehicles and vehicles whose owners are of interest to the gardaí.