This article is from page 6 of the 2007-03-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
This compares with just seven ar- rests, during the St Patrick’s week- end last year.
14 of the arrests were made in the Ennis District, which also takes in the Shannon area. There were six ar- rests in the Killaloe District and one
in west Clare. There were no arrests in the north Clare area.
The 21 arrests bring to 125 the number of people arrested for drink driving in the Clare Garda Division, so far this year. This compares with 66 during the same 11-week period in 2006 – an 89 per cent increase.
Several additional checkpoints set up over the weekend, as part of a na- tionwide crackdown on drink driv- ers. The arrests were made at differ- ent times of the day and night, with a significant number made on the evening of St Patrick’s day and again on Sunday evening.
The increase is due to a combina- tion of the enlarged Garda Traffic Corps in the division – a new traffic
unit was set up in Killaloe last year – and a tendency by some people to ignore repeated warnings.
The Head of the Clare Garda Divi- sion Traffic Corps, Inspector Kevin Moynihan said the latest figure is WOrTying.
‘People have to realise the figures don’t lie. People should adjust their habits accordingly, if they want to re- tain their licences. In relation to road safety, if people have alcohol on them while driving, there is a danger they will get injured or killed,” he said.
A number of drink driving cases which were heard in court in recent weeks yielded particularly high read- ings, with a number of drivers three or four times the legal limit.