Motorists warned of drink-driving clampdown

The head of the Garda Traffic Corps has urged people to consider if they are fit to drive the morning after a night of drinking.

Assistant Garda Commissioner Eddie Rock said people who consume alcohol risk being arrested for drink driving the following day as they may well be still over the limit many hours after their last drink.

He was speaking ahead of the coming into force of the new Road Traffic Act at midnight tonight. In addition to allowing for random breath testing, the new laws bans the use of handheld mobile phones while driving and provides for the introduction of privatised speed cameras.

Drivers who are breathalysed and found to be over the legal limit of 80mg will, from midnight, face between three months and four years off the road. Those who refuse to give a breath test face a two-year ban. Motorists flouting the mobile phone ban can be prosecuted and fined up to €2000.

Commissioner Rock said officers will be mounting increased checkpoints around the country, including outside pubs. He described drink-driving as third on a list of the most shameful offences after child abuse and drug-dealing.

"The demand by the people for it so we will be out there at checkpoints enforcing this law," he told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.

"It has to be proportionate and we can't stop everybody. There will be process and procedures and people, without individualised suspicion will be asked to comply with random breath-testing."

The commissioner denied the fact only a fifth of gardaí are fully trained in the use of new intoxylysers would cause problems. "We have to get all the time a balance between our training and our visibility on the streets and on the roads. And that's the crucial part of it. I hear all the time people criticising but we need a balance and can't keep our people in training all the time, we have to get them out on the street."

The Labour Party's transport spokeswoman Roisin Shortall insisted enforcement was the only way to improve safety standards on the roads. She called on the Government to grant more resources to the Traffic Corps. "What is the point in having a wider range of powers available if they have no means of implementing these new measures?," she asked.

Fine Gael Senator Fergal Browne criticised the new Road Traffic Act for ignoring the growing problem of drug driving. He said studies showed it has become a "wide-spread phenomenon".

"Drug driving involves a very wide range of substances, from illegal drugs like cocaine and marijuana to prescription drugs like sedatives and anti-depressants," he said. "It is important that users of legal prescription drugs are not penalised in any way, but equally, it's time to wake up to the fact that drug driving is widespread in Ireland, and has a serious effect on driving ability."

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams called for more co-operation between authorities on both sides of the Border to tackle road deaths. He called for the establishment of a single Road Safety Authority for the entire island. "The reality is that the number of deaths on our roads can be reduced through public policy, education and greater enforcement of the law," Mr Adams said.

The Irish Medical Organisation today welcomed the introduction of random breath testing, saying it was the "best chance in a generation" of reducing the death toll on the State's roads. Dr Joe Barry warned the current penalty points system has suffered due to a public perception of non-enforcement by gardaí. "High visibility enforcement from the outset is essential and must be sustained," he said. "If so, positive benefits will become apparent very quickly."