A clampdown on young drink drivers has been announced in Kerry after garda figures for the division revealed that men in the 21-30 year age group were most likely to take to the wheel under the influence.
The figures had come as “a shock” and put paid to the “myth” that younger drivers had got the message about drink driving, Kerry’s Chief Superintendent Dave Sheahan told a meeting of the county’s Joint Policing Committee in Tralee.
One third, or 51, of those found to be driving while intoxicated in the six months up to the end of June were between the ages of 21 and 30.
Forty six of these were male and five were female drivers. A further 34 intoxicated drivers were in the 31-40 year age group and six of these were female.
Some 151 people were detected by gardaí as being intoxicated in the first six months of 2016 — a 13 per cent increase on the same period in 2015. Of these 134 were men.
Most crime, including burglaries, had dramatically fallen in Kerry but gardaí were concerned about the rise in driving while intoxicated, Chief Supt David Sheahan said.
Men in the 21-30 age group were nine times more likely to be caught drink driving than their female counterparts, according to the analysis presented on Friday afternoon.
Nine people, all males, were detected drink driving under under the age of 20 in the same period.
Weekend nights, particularly Saturday nights, were worst for offending, and there would be added policing over the next eight Saturdays in Kerry, said Chief Supt Sheahan.
This was not to catch people but to deter a practice that was leading to deaths.
“One would have thought drink driving was not acceptable to the younger people, that they had got the message, but this seems not to be the case,” he said.
He reminded the meeting that nationally 64 per cent of all drivers involved in fatal accidents had alcohol in their system.
“It has to stop. For the next eight Saturdays in Kerry if anyone wants to try it, they will be caught,” he said.
The council’s youngest member John Francis Flynn ( FF), aged 25, who represents South and West Kerry, said something needed to be done about the isolation of older single men in rural Ireland.
Older people who would have had two or three drinks were no longer going out as they were in fear of being detected and they were getting depressed, he said. He called for a community bus to be looked at.