Gardaí ‘very worried’ by ‘atrocious’ drink and drug driving figures in Waterford

Gardaí have expressed their concern over the “atrocious” drink and drug driving figures in Waterford.

Garda Inspector Paul Donohoe spoke on the subject in a wide ranging interview on WLR FM’s Déise Today programme.

Speaking to host Damien Tiernan, Inspector Donohoe expressed his concern over the arrests made during the October bank holiday weekend.

He stated: “Unfortunately, 10 people were arrested over the bank holiday weekend operation for driving under the influence.

“Five in and around the city, five in and around the county, six for drugs and four for alcohol.

“In a four-day span, considering the weather we had as well, those figures are bad.

“I was looking just for the month of October already, there’s 30 people in County Waterford arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Those figures are not good.”

Inspector Donohoe continued by saying that the rise in drug driving in particular is cause for concern.

“Unfortunately, drug driving is really on the up and unfortunately, drug driving is overtaking drink driving.

“We've spent many years trying to reduce people’s drink driving habits and bringing in mandatory intoxicant checkpoints and changing the levels and the limits and different things to change that culture.

“Unfortunately, now what we’re finding is so many people are on drugs. Now we have the devices to detect drugs and unfortunately, we’re seeing an awful lot of that.”

He outlined that 290 arrests were made in County Waterford for driving under the influence last year.

He explained that 341 arrests for the same offence have already been made so far this year.

Inspector Donohoe concluded by saying that this increase is “very worrying”.