As Christmas bears down on us rapidly, BARRY McCALL reports on the endless battle against drink-driving on our roads
Dr Jim McDaid, the Minister for State at the Department of Transport, has dismissed claims that Gardaí have been denied breathalyser kits needed for this year's Christmas anti-drink driving campaign. "We've had no request for 800 breathalysers, or indeed any number of extra breathalysers, from the Gardaí," he told The Irish Times. "It's totally untrue to say that any equipment has been withheld on cost grounds."
The claims about this year's campaign came last week after media reports that the Garda would be unable to take advantage of new powers under Section 10 of the Road Traffic Act due to a shortage of kits. In fact, Section 10 - which effectively allows for random breath testing for the first time - will not come into force until next summer at the earliest. So, no extra kits are needed.
While it may be comforting to hear that the Gardaí have enough kits, drink-driving statistics do not make pleasant reading. Despite campaigns each year and heightened Garda vigilance over the festive season, the number of prosecutions continues to rise. In 1979 4,379 people were convicted of drink-driving offences; the number rose to 5,756 in 1998 and has gone up every year since, reaching 6,790 in 2001.
This would seem to indicate that, if anything, drink-driving is worsening. And lest people think that drink-driving is in some way a fairly harmless offence, another statistic should change their minds - some 40 per cent of our 400-plus road deaths each year are caused by drink-driving.
While an increasing level of prosecutions may indicate increased vigilance, it's certainly no indicator of reduced drink-driving. Visit any suburban pub car-park around closing time and it's invariably packed - almost all the cars will be driven home. It simply beggars belief that all these drivers have been drinking sparkling water or kept themselves to one drink during the evening.
According to most informed sources, including gardaí, the ultimate solution is random breath-testing. At present a garda cannot breath-test a driver without reasonable cause to believe that he or she is intoxicated. The driver must actually smell of alcohol or he or she must have been driving in a clearly erratic fashion. A few extra-strong mints and cautious driving will mean that a driver over the limit will slip through the net, despite being a danger to themselves and others on the road. These people could be caught by random testing.
If people aren't convinced about random testing, a comparison with Australia's Victoria state quickly proves the point. In 2001 11,675 people were breath-tested in Ireland with 4,502 of them testing positive. In the same year in Victoria more than 1.1 million random breath tests were administered. Victoria's population, at 3.8 million, is similar to Ireland, yet it had only 62 road deaths during 2001 compared to 411 on Irish roads.
Put another way, Ireland's drink-related road death figure is almost three times the road deaths from all causes in Victoria.
This is the basis of most Garda thinking on drink-driving. One garda explained that measuring performance on arrests or successful prosecutions is counter-productive. "Our performance should be measured on road safety statistics," he said. "If we had the resources and the powers to test people at random, this would be a powerful disincentive to drink-driving and we would see a drop in road deaths and prosecutions."
There is some positive news. A form of random breath-testing will be introduced next year. Section 10 of the Road Traffic Act 2002 will allow gardaí to breath-test any driver involved in an accident or who has committed any offence under the Road Traffic Acts, however minor. This will allow gardaí to breath-test a driver whose car has defective lighting, no tax, bald tyres - and, from January, who hasn't got their driver's licence with them.
But, the Road Traffic Act was passed into law early this year, but Section 10 has not yet been introduced. Why? "It's not as simple as it might appear," says Dr McDaid. "Section 10 is about far more than drink-driving. It's about driving while intoxicated by a range of substances. If the person passes a breath test, he or she can still be arrested and tested for up to seven different substances. The new rules will also require gardaí to be trained in new procedures and so on."
He does believe that a significant number of extra breathalyser kits will be needed for the enforcement of the new legislation. "Yes, there will be a requirement for some additional kits," he says. "But we don't know how many yet. I don't know where the figure of 800, quoted in the media last week, came from. The Garda has not come up with any definite figure.
"In my discussions so far, figures such as 100 and 300 have been mentioned but these are just guesses. We will have to see how many are required when Section 10 comes into operation. I can guarantee that whatever number is needed will be provided."
Another reason for the delay in introducing the new powers is the legal position. "No fewer than 45 different legal challenges have been taken against evidential breath testing," says Dr McDaid. "We want to be sure that we are on solid legal ground before going forward. We want to make sure that the legislation is air tight. I would estimate that we will have all legal and other hurdles cleared by the middle of next year andthat the Section will be introduced then."