This article is from page 14 of the 2006-04-18 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
ELEVEN people were arrested on Clare’s roads over the weekend for drink driving offences as motorists recklessly ignored warnings over drink driving.
The arrests occurred between Friday and Sunday night during a heavy Garda clampdown over the busy holiday weekend. The majority of the arrests took place in the Ennis area while there were also offences in Ennistymon and Killaloe. The Easter crackdown came into force last Thursday night and ran through until today.
There was a strong Garda prescence operating on the roads over the weekend with unmarked vehicles supplementing the work of uniformed patrols. A number of operations were implemented by the Clare Garda Division including the targeting of known trouble spots. Gardaí say they are disappointed that so many people chose to ignore heavily advertised warnings about the dangers of drink driving.
The head of Traffic Corps in Clare, Inspector Kevin Moynihan said that the high figures were particularly disappointing in light of recent safety campaigns to curb the carnage on the country’s roads.
“Up to this morning (Monday) we had 11 arrests for drink driving, and we are very disappointed with that. It’s particularly disappointing, having regard to the fact that there was a lot of media coverage given over to the issue, that people continue to think that it is ok to drink and drive.”
There was also a heavy crackdown on other motoring offences with a number of fixed charge penalty points being issued for careless and dangerous driving.
The new Road Safety Bill proposed by Minister for Transport Martin Cullen will give Gardai wide ranging new powers to tackle the so called ‘hard core’ of drink drivers. Under new legislation Gardaí will be able to carry more speed checks and will have the power to randomly breathtest motorists. The introduction of the new penalty points system has also reinforced Garda powers. Since the addition of 31 new offences to the system, over 3,000 penalty points notices have been issued nationwide.
“From a speeding point of view the vast majority of motorists do abide by the rules of the road. But there are still people out there that continue to think that it is ok to drink and drive on the roads and that is a pity” added Inspector Moynihan.