Gardaí arrest 567 in 14 days of road campaign

Gardaí have arrested 567 people on suspicion of drink driving in the first two weeks of this year's Christmas road-safety campaign.

The figure is a 3 per cent rise in the arrest rate compared to the same two weeks last year.

The number of those breath-tested in the first two weeks of the campaign, which began on Monday, November 29th, was 765, compared to 519 for 2003. This represents an increase of 47 per cent between this year and 2003.

However, road deaths have increased, with 15 fatalities on the State's roads in the first two weeks compared to 11 for 2003.

So far this year 370 people have died on the State's roads, 42 more than for the same period last year and 34 more than the total number killed on the roads in 2003.

A total of 24 have died on the roads in December this year, three more than for the entire month last year.