As thousands prepare to travel on Irish roads over the Easter bank holiday weekend to meet up with family and friends, drinkaware.ie is encouraging people, if socialising with alcohol, to remember the morning after.
According to drinkaware.ie, the secret to sobering up is time; no amount of coffee, energy drinks, cold showers, or breakfast rolls will speed up the process. Although these things may make a person feel better, it does not mean you are fit to drive. To find out how many drinks you have on a night out, make use of the standard drinks calculator on www.drinkaware.ie
“Morning after driving is clearly linked to weekend socialising,” said drinkaware.ie chief executive, Fionnuala Sheehan. “According to official Garda figures, 124 drivers were arrested for driving under the influence over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend last year. There were also over 400 incidents of drivers under the influence between the hours of 8am to 1pm on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday mornings in the period from January 1 to September 27 last year.”
In that period, on Saturday mornings, a total of 101 such detections were made by gardai. On Sunday mornings the number was 208; more than five times greater than the mid-week detection figure. On Mondays, between 8am and 1pm over that period, a total of 94 incidents of drivers under the influence were reported.
The message from drinkaware.ie is to take responsibility for your drinking this Easter. “If you are having a night out involving alcohol this weekend, do the maths and if you suspect that you might not be OK to drive the morning after, then don’t risk it,” added Ms Sheehan. “Equally, the message to others drinking over the weekend is not to get in a car with anyone who you think is not safe to drive.”
