600 people arrested for driving under the influence in December

On average, one person was arrested every hour for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol last week, according to new figures from Gardai.

In total, 173 people were arrested for driving under the influence in the past seven days — between Thursday, December 22, and Wednesday, December 28. 24 of these arrests involved drug driving.

As part of a Christmas and New Year road safety campaign, gardaí say they carried out 1,380 checkpoints nationwide during this time.

At these checkpoints, gardaí also recorded 3,060 speeding offences, 29 seatbelt offences, and 82 offences for the use of a mobile phone while driving were detected.

During the month of December, gardaí conducted 5,500 checkpoints and arrested 600 people for driving under the influence.

A further 186 seatbelt offences and 724 offences for using a mobile while were identified, and 11,647 people were caught speeding.

Some 4,124 road collisions have been reported to gardaí this month.

According to garda statistics, 157 people have lost their lives on Ireland's roads so far this year — 25 more than the amount killed up to this point last year.

In 2021 there were 14 road traffic fatalities in Meath. So far in 2022 eight people have lost their lives on local roads including five single car accidents all involving male drivers travelling alone.

There was one two vehicle accident where a female was killed and two pedestrians lost their lives in road traffic accidents.

Speaking this morning, Inspector Ross O’Doherty of the Garda National Roads Policing Bureau said the figures were "stark."

"It should go without saying that behind these stats are real lives, real people and real threat to their lives and the lives of other road users."

Ahead of New Year celebrations this weekend, Inspector O'Doherty urged people intending to have a drink to make alternative arrangements to get home and to avoid driving the following morning.

"The importance of this is shown in the fact that between Thursday, December 1 and today, 76 people have been arrested on suspicion of intoxicated driving between the hours of 6am and 2pm in the afternoon," he said.

"Not everyone might realise the real dangers of driving the morning after but intoxicated driving at any hour of the day or night carries a high risk — a risk to the health and safety of you and other road users but also of losing your licence and being put off the road which carries penalty."

Inspector O'Doherty added that gardaí would be out conducting more checkpoints and other operational activity nationwide "to ensure that everyone gets to their destination safely this New Year’s weekend."

"We are not asking motorists, we are urging them to help us reduce the number of serious and fatal road traffic collisions by never taking a risk.

"It is never, ever worth it and hindsight often comes far too late."