This article is from page 16 of the 2007-12-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 16 JPG
DRINK driving, speeding and seat- belt use will be the central focus of the Garda drink driving campaign this Christmas, as ongoing efforts to cut road deaths continue.
The numbers of gardai deployed to the Clare Garda Division traffic corps doubled during the year as part of a nationwide campaign to crack down on road offences.
An increased emphasis is being placed on catching road offenders during the festive season.
Twelve people have been killed on the county’s roads this year. Eleven of those were in the Clare Garda Division while the other road death occurred close to Setright’s bar in Cratloe, on the Clare/Limerick Garda divisional border last month. Last year nine people died. Up to last Monday 525 people were arrested on suspicion of drink driving in Clare since the start of the year, which is a huge increase on the figure for 2006.
The head of the Clare Garda Di- vision traffic corps, Inspector John Galvin, said every effort would be made to ensure drivers abided by the law.
“We are putting considerable re- sources in road traffic. The main causes of fatal accidents are speed, drink driving and not wearing seat
belts,’ he said.
Several motorists have been caught for drink driving the morning after socialising. Gardai are reiterating the dangers of driving in the hours after drinking alcohol.
‘People have to realise when they are out socialising it takes several hours for alcohol to leave the sys- tem,’ said Inspector Galvin.
“Our main focus is to keep deaths down. We would prefer if no-one was arrested for drink driving,” he said.
“The drink driving figures are dras- tically up for the whole year. How- ever in the last number of weeks the figures are down on a weekly basis. We hope people are getting the mes- sage. Drink is a major contributory factor to deaths on the roads while there is also legislation on drug driv- ing as this also carries a disqualifica- tion,’ added Inspector Galvin.
Drivers are also being reminded that the use of mobile phones while driving is forbidden. Handsfree kits or earpieces are mandatory if us- ing mobile phones while behind the wheel.
“It is an offence which carries two penalty points,” he said.
“The traffic corps has increased in size over the past year. This is an indication of the seriousness with which it (the issue) 1s viewed by gardai,’ added Inspector Galvin.