Gardaí arrested 914 people for driving while intoxicated over the Christmas period.
Approximately one in five (21 per cent) drug driving arrests occurred between 6am and 1pm. Thirty-five drink and drug driving incidents occurred on New Year’s Day, 12 of the incidents occurred between 6am and 1pm.
"That’s a poor start to 2022 for some drivers," said Assistant Commissioner Paula Hilman.
There were 13,950 speed detections over Christmas, while 1,269 fixed charged notices (FCNs) were issued to drivers using mobile phones and 525 FCNs were issued to learner drivers driving unaccompanied.
These ongoing detections demonstrate that some road users continue to ignore road safety advice putting themselves and other road users at risk.
Assistant Commissioner Hillman said: "I would appeal to all road users to modify their behaviour, to heed road safety advice in order to reduce collisions, avoid unnecessary deaths and to ensure that our roads are safer in 2022. Gardaí undertook 15,759 breath tests at 5,681 checkpoints over the Christmas period. We are playing our part, and ask all road users to play theirs."
Road Safety Authority chief executive Sam Waide said: "I would like to acknowledge the tremendous enforcement efforts from An Garda Síochána in 2021 and over the Christmas period, in addition to road users behaving safely.
"However, it is astonishing to see the numbers of those who persist to drink and drug drive, as it significantly increases the risk of a fatal collision. Inappropriate speed is still an issue and even a 5 per cent reduction in average speed can reduce fatal collisions by 30 per cent."
Key statistics from An Garda Síochána’s Christmas and New Year Road Safety Campaign:
- 914 driving while intoxicated arrests.
- 13,950 speeding detections.
- 15,759 breath tests carried out.
- 5,681 checkpoints performed.
- 1,269 FCNs issued for use of mobile phones.
- 310 FCNs issued for non-wearing of seatbelts.
- 525 FCNs issued for learner drivers driving unaccompanied.
- A total of 35 drink and drug driving arrests occurred on New Year’s Day – 12 of these occurred between 6am and 1pm.
There were sadly 19 fatalities on our roads during the period between November 26th, 2021 and January 4th, 2022. This compares with 10 for the same dates in 2020.
In 2021 there were a total of 134 fatalities on Irish roads. This compares with 146 in 2020.
