40% rise in motorists caught with drugs in their system

40% rise in motorists caught with drugs in their system

THE first three months of 2022 has seen an increase of motorists caught with either drugs or alcohol in their system in the Tallaght policing district.

According to statistics for Tallaght from the JPC Policing Meeting on April 22, there was a 40 per cent increase of motorists caught driving on drugs, and a 37 per cent increase of driving while intoxicated.

The increase for the period January 10 to April 10, 2022, is in comparison to the same period in 2021.

In the Tallaght district, gardai recorded 38 cases of drivers intoxicated with drugs during the first three months of this year, and 62 cases of driving while intoxicated.

At the January Policing Meeting, Superintendent Peter Duff noted a “considerable increase” in the number of people arrested for driving under the influence of drugs, rather than alcohol.

Up to 18 drivers were arrested for drug offences behind the wheel in the Tallaght area, from December 1, 2021 to January 14, 2022.

At the latest meeting, Chief Supt Duff, DMR South Division, said cases are detected “through a variety of means”.

“One is where we have a checkpoint, guards stop the car and we do random breath tests. The other way is following a collision or following an allegation of an offence, we will conduct a breath test on someone on the roadside, and they can turn up positive or negative,” said Chief Supt Duff.

“The third way is by gardai on patrol observe the vehicle driving erratically or something brings the vehicle to the attention of the guards, they pull someone over, and conduct a breath test on the road.”

As for the drug testing, Chief Supt Duff said it is similar test but “takes longer to do on the roadside”.

“We take a mouth swab from someone, put it into a machine, what we call a Drager 5000. It analyses and indicates the presence of a controlled substance. That person is then arrested, taken to a garda station, a blood or urine sample is demanded. That then, is forwarded to a laboratory for analysis.”

While acknowledging an increase of substance use cases behind the wheel, Chief Supt Duff said it was not a “like for like” time period, because lockdowns last year meant there was less traffic on the road.

The garda roads division unit is based in Terenure Garda Station but covers the whole district, including Tallaght.

Chief Supt Duff said in general terms, “less than one per cent” of motorists are found to be in breach when providing samples to gardai.

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