The Road Safety Authority (RSA) has launched a website, to provide factual information on drink driving in Ireland and to dispel the many myths and misinformation in relation to the problem of drink driving in Ireland.
The new site, www.drinkdriversdestroylives.ie, is being launched to support the proposed change to strengthen drink driving penalties contained in the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill 2017. It features factual information outlining the road crash data, scientific research on the impairment effects of alcohol on driving.
The Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill 2017 proposes a change to the penalties for drivers who chose to drink drive at blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels between 50-80mg. The Bill does not propose to change Ireland’s drink drive limits.
Under the proposed legislation, drink driving offences committed at BAC levels between 50mg and 80mg will incur an automatic disqualification of 3 months instead of the current penalty of a €200 fine and three penalty points.
Commenting on the new website, Moyagh Murdock, Chief Executive of the Road Safety, said: “The website drinkdriversdestroylives.ie has been developed to provide the public, elected representatives and the media access to facts in relation to drink driving. It has also been created to counter the myths, and distorted facts that have been put into the public arena by vested interest groups and individuals. Interest groups that have ignored the pleas of victims’ families to support the introduction of the new measures and turned the perpetrators of drink driving offences into victims. The proposed change in legislation increases the penalties so offenders will lose their licence at a lower alcohol level than currently. This is vital if we are to have an effective deterrent that changes the behaviour of the small group of people in this country who continue to drink and drive.”
Ms Murdock added: “I urge the public to take a few moments out of their day to visit this useful and informative website and familiarise themselves with its content. I believe that the facts and data on the site will convince people of the merit in the proposed change to drink driving penalties. The site also provides downloadable social media banners for users to show their support for the bill, and I would urge people to show their support by downloading them and sharing.”
