Galway Garda chief warns drink drivers – you will be caught

Drink driving is on the rise again in the county, according to Galway Garda Chief Superintendent Tom Curley, who has revealed that even he was ‘bagged’ recently by officers at a local checkpoint.

The number of drink driving offences recorded in the first five months of this year has increased to 74 incidents.

According to Chief Supt Curley’s latest crime report, that represents an increase of just over seven per cent on the same period last year. He told the latest County Galway Joint Policing Committee (JPC) that there was an “upward trend” in drink driving offences in the county.

Increased mandatory alcohol checkpoints were helping to detect drivers who were drunk and he revealed that “at a minimum” there are three checkpoints per day, per Garda District in the Galway Garda Division.

Pointing to a big increase in the number of checkpoints in Galway, Chief Supt Curley revealed: “I know myself – I have been stopped at a checkpoint and I have been breathalysed on the way to Athlone. And that’s how it should be. It is for everybody in the audience.”

In his report he said there were 1,457 MAT (mandatory alcohol checkpoints) held right across the Galway Garda Division in the first five months of the year. Some 5,805 breath tests were performed at those MAT checkpoints, he said.

“We’re detecting at least two drunk drivers every week in the county through checkpoints,” he said.

In the past, a local Garda might have been reluctant to charge people with drink driving because they have to live in the community.

But Chief Supt Curley said that in addition to MAT checkpoints, all Gardaí in the Division are instructed by him to implement the law in relation to the Road Traffic Act, including drink driving offences.

Chief Superintendent Curley also said there was a worrying increase in the numbers of road traffic fatalities.

“Last year there were six fatal accidents recorded in the city and county.

“My report for the first five months of this year shows there were three fatal accidents but that is now (mid-June) five fatal accidents. So there has been an increase in fatal accidents for the Galway Division,” he said.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.