Big jump in drink-drive arrests at weekend

Date Published: 18-Mar-2008

THERE has been a sharp rise in the number of people nabbed for drink driving offences in the city over the bank holiday weekend.

Gardaí detected a total of 19 motorists driving under the influence of alcohol in the city between Friday and Tuesday morning.

Galway Gardaí set up number of extra checkpoints around the city as part of the national campaign to clamp down on drunk drivers. Despite this, and the fact that the penalties for being convicted of drunken driving have increased dramatically since last April, Superintendent Tom Curley said the number of detections during St. Patrick’s weekend was “extremely high”.

And, he said it proved that people are still not heeding the message that it’s not okay to drink and drive. “A total of 19 motorists were caught driving while under the influence of alcohol in the city between Friday and early this morning (Tuesday) which is over and above the norm for a bank holiday weekend — it’s extremely high. People are not getting the message,” he said.

Meanwhile, despite the ………………….