GARDAÍ ARRESTED 8,753 drivers on suspicion of driving under the influence of drink or drugs in 2018. 

As well as this, over 130,000 drivers were detected breaking the speed limit last year, and just under 30,000 were caught holding a phone while driving. 

Figures on roads policing detections were released today by gardaí.

Gardaí also tweeted about a driver being arrested yesterday in Wicklow on suspicion of drink driving in a car that had empty cans of beer in the front passenger side and in the door.

Gardaí tweeted that the driver had been arrested in Newtownmountkennedy, Co Wicklow yesterday on suspicion of drink driving.

They also tweeted two photos of empty cans of Heineken. 

Provisional statistics up to 31 December 2018 show that a total of 149 people lost their lives on Ireland’s roads as a result of 142 fatal crashes.

This compares with 158 deaths as a result of 141 fatal crashes in 2017, making last year the safest year on Ireland’s roads since deaths were first recorded in 1959.

With reporting Conall Thomas