This article is from page 9 of the 2006-01-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 9 JPG
THIRTY-EIGHT people were arrested for drink driving in the Clare garda division during the six-week Christmas Enforcement Campaign, which concluded at midnight on Sunday.
This represents an increase of eight per cent, when compared with last year’s campaign. Significantly, there were more arrests for the offence – 11 – in the week after Christmas than during any other week of the campaign. Overall there were 10 per cent more arrests made for drink driving during 2005 than 2004.
The head of the Clare garda division traffic corps Inspector Kevin Moynihan said, “We are disappointed it is up. The trend up to last week had been positive. People didn’t pay as much attention in the last week as they had in the previous five weeks.”
There were 57 speeding detections during the past week, which brings to 310 the number for the campaign. This is a 19 per cent increase on last year.
There were 12 fixed notices issued for seatbelts last week, which brings the total for the six weeks to 88. This is a decrease of 93.
Meanwhile gardai are advising motorists to take care, after icy patches resulted in a number of road crashes over the weekend, including a collision between a bus and car, on the Ennis side of Crusheen on Monday morning. One woman sustained minor injuries in the accident.
“There is a lot of rain forecast for the week and visibility will be reduced. The advice is to leave greater distance between yourself and the car in front. Don’t drive through a flood unless you know its depth,” said Inspector Moynihan.