‘Obviously the road safety message isn’t hitting home with some people’ - Gardaí

A senior Garda official has expressed dismay following 13 arrests for drivers under the influence on a weekend when a garda enforcement operation was in place. 

Sergeant Euanan Walsh was speaking after the Donegal Division ran a four-day campaign aiming to reduce the number of road traffic offences over the bank holiday weekend.  The enforcement operation began last Thursday morning and lasted until this morning, Tuesday.

Gardaí conducted checkpoints, patrols and speed checks and a large range of road traffic offences were detected. Fixed Charge penalty Notices have been issued for various offences and a number of vehicles were seized.

“Thirteen arrests for driving under the influence of alcohol/drugs is a worrying figure,” Sergeant Walsh said. “Even one arrest for driving under the influence is one too high. We continue to appeal to all drivers to slow down, to drive with care and never to drive while under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.”

There were six drink driving-related arrests and seven drug driving-related arrests, detections were made in relation to speeding, no tax, no insurance, bald tyres and no NCT.

“The aim of this campaign was the protection of vulnerable road users, and the reduction in fatal and serious collisions through high-visibility roads policing and strict enforcement,” Sergeant Walsh added. “Thankfully we did not have any fatal road traffic collisions in the Donegal Division over the course of the Easter Bank Holiday Weekend but given the amount of detections in relation to a range of road traffic offences it is obvious that the road safety message is just not hitting home with some people.”

Additionally, a disqualified driver was arrested and altered/forged Insurance documents were seized. 

Sinn Féin’s transport spokesperson,  south-Donegal Deputy Martin Kenny, labelled the figures as disheartening. 

“I am very disappointed that so many people are using alcohol and drugs and then driving,” he said.  “That's reflected in the number of people that were caught over the weekend. So many people are taking chances/risks and driving erratically or irresponsibly and as we can see from that stat so many are driving while under the influence.”

Nationwide, 140 people were arrested between Good Friday and Easter Monday. There were three fatalities on Irish roads over the weekend.