Drink drive detections double

During a recent winter anti-drink drive operation, preliminary figures indicate that police detected and arrested 25 people in H District, of which Coleraine forms a part, compared to 16 over the same period last year - a rise of 56 percent.

The figure includes motorists who were unfit to drive, or who were unable or refused to give a sample.

Across Northern Ireland as a whole 408 motorists were caught drink driving, up from 364 during the 2010/2011 police operation.

Announcing the figures, Assistant Chief Constable Alistair Finlay said: “It’s disappointing that despite our warnings, 408 people still took the risk of killing or injuring themselves, their family, friends and other innocent road users by deciding to drive after drinking.

“Our aim with this and every road safety initiative is to save lives and reduce injuries, which is why we ran operations day and night throughout the festive season and not just during the weekends or key dates.”

“During this operation, we stopped and performed roadside preliminary breath tests on 6,426 drivers. While that’s over 7% more than during last year’s operation, however we should highlight that during the 2010/2011 operation, traffic levels were greatly reduced due to the treacherous weather.

“These 408 people across Northern Ireland have begun 2012 with the prospect of going to court where they will almost certainly lose their driving licence. They should count themselves lucky. They could have lost their own life or destroyed the lives of others had police not stopped them.