Gardaí to step up efforts to catch drink drivers in July and August

A campaign run by the Gardaí and the Road Safety Authority will last until the end of August.

An Garda Síochána are to step up their efforts to catch out drink drivers in the months of July and August following an increase in the number of deaths on Irish roads in 2016. Launched in conjunction with the Road Safety Authority (RSA), the campaign will involve an education initiative aimed at hammering home the risks of drink driving, as well as a significant increase in the number of Garda checkpoints on Irish roads. Since the beginning of this year, 86 people have been killed on Irish roads, 11 more than by this time last year, a 15% increase. Furthermore, 30% of Irish people arrested for drink driving were between the ages of 21 and 29. Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland on Monday, Superintendent Con O'Donoghue from the Garda National Traffic Bureau said people have "lapsed into their old ways" and are drink driving more. O’Donoghue said that people can expect to see more check points, breath testing and arrests for drink driving and that Gardai would be “upping the ante” to try and prevent drink-driving on Irish roads. "We're going to treat the summer months in many ways like the Christmas period and we're stepping up our enforcement in terms of drink driving with a number of 24-hour operations over the coming months, because July and August also tend to be very high when it comes to fatal collisions, so people can expect to see a lot more checkpoints, a lot more breath testing and a lot more arrests for drink driving,” O’Donoghue said.