NEWS - Drink Driving Incidents Increase Despite Year of Lockdown
Abby Wallace
After a year of consecutive lockdowns, traffic mobility has decreased dramatically. With a unified message to work from home, shop locally and only travel for essential purposes, lockdown presented an opportunity to decongest our roads.
But a fall in road users hasn’t made us any safer.
Davy Jackson, Chair of RoadSafe NI, said: “There was a 60 per cent drop in traffic mobility between March and May last year, and during this time, there were 383 detections of drink driving.”
That’s around 80 more detections than in 2019.
“On top of the drop in road mobility, it just doesn’t make sense”, Jackson added.
With the closure of pubs and ban on social gatherings, it would seem likely that lockdown would lower the threat caused by drink driving, but it hasn’t translated into a dramatic fall in detections or incidents.
Inspector of Road Policing, Rosie Leech, pointed to the “complicated picture” which has meant there hasn’t been a fall in drink driving incidents.
Emptier roads and the lack of availability of public transport or taxis has led more people to trust their own impaired judgement when they need a way home. This has had dangerous consequences, and perhaps helps us understand why the number of fatalities on our roads in 2020 remained the same as the previous year, at 56.
Lockdown has inevitably taken a toll on the public’s mental health – and students and young people are no exception.
With a shift to online learning and being cramped into dorm rooms, 73 per cent of young people said their mental health has been affected by restrictions. But while the opportunity for socialisation has slipped, young people have turned to casual drinking – perhaps as a coping mechanism.
Tierna Kelly, a second year student at Queen’s said: “Lockdown has been particularly stressful at times as a student and being away from family a lot more has heightened that stress. I drink after long days to chill out more.”
A rise in casual drinking may have contributed to the failure of drink driving incidents in Northern Ireland to fall in 2020, despite being locked down.
“Young people are 20 per cent more likely to provide a positive breathalyser test,” Inspector Leech said. “It’s endemic amongst young people. Drink driving creates an unhealthy environment for them. It impairs their judgement and gives them a feeling of invincibility.”
In partnership with the Police Service Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service, RoadSafe NI run a campaign to support newly-qualified drivers. As its chair, Jackson admitted that there is a greater need to support and educate young drivers, and that they would like to roll this campaign out further, but this is dependent on funding.
But this year, difficulties to educate young people about road safety have extended beyond a lack of funding. The closure of schools for months at a time has meant those responsible for educating young people have had to make alternative arrangements.
Inspector Leech pointed to the positive impacts of new teaching strategies, educational initiatives have still been able to go ahead, but new online adjustments have meant that young people are actually finding these support systems more accessible, and the satisfaction rates have gone up.
“As we move forward, it will make us think, are there other ways we can reach out to people? Those who have been reluctant to go to a venue with a police presence can now participate in the privacy of their own home.”
Looking forward, lockdown has also given Inspector Leech’s team, alongside the Department for Infrastructure, the opportunity to push for new initiatives to protect our most vulnerable road users, including those who have recently turned to walking or cycling. This includes using technologies, such as headcams and dashcams to retrieve footage in order to protect everyone who has a right to be out on the roads.
Going forward, the solutions to a lot of these risks are perhaps simpler than we think. It is key to have a route home planned in advance when mixing can begin again, and pubs start to open.
Inspector Leech adds: “So many of our problems would be resolved if people took a deep breath and thought I’m not in any rush. We’re all guilty of it, but courtesy on our roads would make a huge difference to our statistics.”
Abby Wallace is The Scoop’s Deputy Editor