Officials call for investigation into disparate conviction rates for drink driving
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Road safety officials have called for an investigation into wildly disparate conviction rates for drink driving offences in different Irish counties.
New Courts Service figures have revealed that a third of motorists prosecuted for drink driving avoid a conviction, RTÉ reports.
The highest rate of convictions was in Co Kildare, where 85 per cent of motorists are successfully prosecuted, and the lowest was in Co Waterford, where just 44 per cent of prosecutions are successful.
The Road Safety Authority (RSA) has now called on the Courts Service, the Department of Justice, and An Garda Síochána to investigate the discrepancy.
The Department of Transport previously revealed that the number of motorists banned from driving in the State has risen sharply in the first half of 2019.
As many as 8,090 motorists were disqualified from driving between January and July this year, against a total of 10,996 in the whole of 2018.
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