So half of them weren’t breathalysed for completely understandable reasons.

Yet the headline implies some sort of fault on the part of the Plod.

This is rubbish like, they aren’t going to breathalyse a fatally injured/ dead/ unconscious person and jeopardise any chance of their survival, the figures are substantially higher than before the rule came in. Blame the bankers here again I suppose……

This pointless article has wasted 2 mins of my life. So the gardaí never breathalysed the person(s) who were fatally injured or already rushed to hospital??!!? Same on them :-D
Reads like an April 1st story.

Terrible article Gavin. You come with a sensationalist headline to draw in the readers and hint that the Gardai are at fault. Then go on to explain that there’s a damn good reason why they weren’t breathalysed. So what is the point of the article? Did you even read it once you wrote it? The journal standards are seriously slipping and I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s thinking this.

I support a more relaxed system. This country is full of conservative hardliners who are always getting their way with stricter laws. Eventually, you realize how life is more much better abroad than in this country.

This is crazy, last august bank holiday weekend I was working in a pub. Four nights in a row, when I was driving home, I went through checkpoints. Even though I was in a pub uniform and told the guards I had been breathalysed each previous night, they asked me again anyway. Of course I did, I had nothing to hide. I was happy that something was being done about drink driving and extra vigilance been taken on bank holiday weekends when unfortunately our road accidents increase. But what is the point in pouring extra money into road safety and drink driving campaigns, having guards setting up random check points if they are not going to enforce the laws when there has been accidents. I’m not saying every accident is caused by drink, of course not, but it should be one of the first things done in eliminating the cause of the accident. It’s shocking in the times we’re in that people still drink and drive.

“Garda Keys was taken to Tallaght Hospital complaining of injuries to his shoulder and ribs. But when he got to the hospital, he said he was not going in and felt alright.
Sergeant Pat Slattery gave evidence that he managed to find Garda Keys at his house at about 4am the following morning.
Sergeant Slattery took a statement from him, but he said he did not breathalyse him because there is a three-hour time limit on breathalysing someone after an incident has taken place.”

Which section does this non-testing fit? looking after one of our own?

Unenforceable law is stupid law! However, this is easily enforceable, it is just incompetence that has failed to follow procedures. Have these officers been repimanded for their incompetence, if not why not? The only way curing their incompetence is to hit them in the pocket, if they fail to follow such procedures dock them a days pay. They will soon learn how to complete procedures to the full.

There are still 24 people who were not breathalysed because the Garda knew better. The whole point of this is to eliminate human error!
I hope that they were reprimanded in some way.