Only 13% appeals on drink-driving upheld

Just 13 per cent of motorists who appealed a conviction for drink driving in 2005 had their appeal upheld, figures obtained by The Irish Timesshow.

Out of 1,244 appeals lodged against drink-driving convictions in 2005, just 162 convictions were "reversed" according to data released by the Courts Services under the Freedom of Information Act.

During that year 4,140 drivers were convicted of drink-driving, out of a total of 9,393 drivers prosecuted. A motorist has 14 days to appeal a drink-driving conviction.

Legal sources said that in many cases an appeal is lodged by a convicted drunk driver to give themselves an extra couple of weeks or months on the road before their disqualification for drink-driving starts. The Courts Services also provided a detailed breakdown of the activity of two Dublin district courts during the month of September in 2006 when these courts predominantly hear drink-driving cases.

Of the 659 cases dealt with by these courts, 224 resulted in convictions, 250 led to adjournments, 121 cases were struck out and 34 cases dismissed.

Bench warrants were issued for 30 motorists. The Courts Services said the vast majority of these cases were related to drink-driving but that roughly 4 per cent were not.

These figures suggest a significant number of drink-driving cases are not resulting in a conviction.

A recent report by lecturers from forensic and legal medicine at UCD noted with concern an apparent fall in the conviction rate for drivers whose blood or urine sample was over the blood alcohol limit.

In 2005 fewer than a quarter of all those charged (24 per cent) were convicted, according to Garda data.

Yesterday An Garda Síochána released figures that revealed 318 motorists were arrested on suspicion of drink-driving between Christmas Day and New Year's Eve and 17,788 drivers in total in 2006. This was significantly higher than the 13,369 drivers arrested for drink-driving in the previous year.

Head of the Garda Traffic Corps, Assistant Commissioner Eddie Rock, said 85 people were arrested for drink-driving on New Year's Eve and another 97 motorists were detected over the limit the following day.

Assistant Commissioner Rock said that on the basis of these figures there was no indication of a significant change in motorists' behaviour with regard to getting behind the wheel after drinking.

He said road safety enforcement would continue to be prioritised. "We haven't won this issue or won this battle at all," he said.

Road fatalities fell last year to 367 largely as a result of the introduction of random alcohol testing in July.

Half the motorists killed were under 30 years of age and 70 per cent were men.

Noel Brett, chief executive of the Road Safety Authority, said public awareness campaigns and rigorous garda enforcement throughout the year had helped to cut the death toll and said that measures aimed at reducing the rate of deaths among young men would be included in the next road safety strategy which will be published in March.

It was also revealed yesterday that seven gardai have been charged and convicted of drink-driving over the last two years. The figures were released to the Press Association under the FoI Act.