Drink driving in Galway up by one-quarter

Galway Gardaí have detected a spike in the numbers of motorists caught drink driving in the city.

The latest crime figures reveal that drink driving detections have increased by 24 per cent in the Galway City and Salthill Garda districts.

In the first nine months of this year, a total of 134 motorists were detected driving while over the legal alcohol limit in Galway and Salthill.

The figures were contained in the quarterly Garda report presented to the Galway City Joint Policing Committee (JPC).

Garda Chief Superintendent, Tom Curley said the figures proved that drink driving is still a problem.

“There was an increase of 24 per cent in the incidents of drink driving. It’s still a major issue in Ireland. It is up to 134 in the first nine months of the year, so there is still a lot of drink driving happening out there,” said Chief Sup Curley.

In his Garda report to the meeting, Chief Supt Curley also revealed that a total of 2,756 checkpoints were carried out by Gardaí in Galway between January and the end of October.

That represented a 21 per cent increase in the numbers of checkpoints.

He also revealed that the amount of mandatory breath tests carried out at the checkpoints had increased by eight per cent to 16,380.

City Councillor Donal Lyons, a JPC member, said it was disappointing that people were still going out, drinking and driving. He told the meeting that the Garda figures confirmed that increased checkpoints for drink driving has resulted in increased detections.