The new drink driving laws have been in place across the country since midnight last night but already Kilkenny Gardai have been out on the roads implementing the revised measures.
The new laws subject learner and professional drivers to a lower alcohol limit of just 20mg per 100ml of blood, while general drivers on a full license will have the limit lowered from 80mg per 100ml of blood to 50mg.
Kilkenny sergeant with the Traffic Corps, Con Dooley told the Kilkenny Advertiser that the laws came into effect from midnight and that there was no leniency regarding their implementation.
“The new laws are now in place and they have been implemented as and from midnight last night. We are very prepared for the new system and all of our breathalysing equipment has been recalibrated to deal with the new limits so it has been an automatic changeover for the Gardai,” he said.
“It is a fair system I think, and of course it will take some bedding-in time before it is perfect but we are ready for it. All the studies undertaken have indicated that lowering the alcohol limit saves lives. It has been seen in Australia where the level was lowered to 50mg and there has already been an 80 per cent reduction in fatalities.
“Last year in Ireland there were 212 fatalities, which is a drop on previous years and already this year the figures are lower than ever and this is a great achievement. This year we hope to come in under 200 — of course any fatality is one too many but we are improving our figures gradually every year,” he said.
This weekend is notorious for road fatalities and already this week one man lost his life in Kilkenny while travelling along a rural secondary route.
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