New Research Reveals Road Safety Threat From Drug-Driving

With an estimated driving population of approximately 2.5m drivers, the threat to road safety from this behaviour is obviously very significant.

Regionally, Dublin shows the highest incidence of driving under the influence of recreational drugs at 16%.  The rest of Leinster (excluding Dublin) and Munster recorded a 9% incidence and Connaught and Ulster recorded a 5% incidence. With over 1.8million cars on the roads the research results did show increases in support for greater road safety enforcement and also strong support for newly introduced road safety measures.  For example almost 70% believe that the introduction of safety cameras has had a positive impact on road safety and 63% say that the use of speed cameras should be increased to enforce speed limits.

Other key findings in the Hibernian report show that Ireland's drivers blame 'other' road users rather than accepting some personal responsibility themselves for some of the problems on our roads.  When asked if they see themselves as law abiding 93% said yes.  Yet half of drivers aged under 35 and one third of drivers aged over 35 admitted to speeding most days.  With speeding, drink driving and drug driving seen as the top three causes of collisions on our roads, the solution to improved road safety is clearly in the hands of every individual driver.

Dick O'Driscoll, Managing Director of Hibernian Insurance said: "The results of this year's Hibernian Motoring Report show welcome improvements in attitudes toward speeding, drink driving and positive driving behaviours generally.  This can only be good news but the Report's findings also show that there can be no room for ambivalence in relation to road safety.  To that end motorists must become aware of the potentially catastrophic consequences of drug driving and other unsafe behaviours including speeding and use of mobiles while driving. We would like to see further research in this area so that motorists, especially younger drivers, get the message that personal choice has a very significant impact on road safety."

For many years motorists have regarded drink driving as the scourge of Irish roads. However, the Hibernian research suggests that motorists are starting to get the message never to drink and drive, with 78% of motorists saying that they would never drink any alcohol and drive afterwards.

Very significantly, this rises to 85% among those under 35 falling back to three quarters amongst those over this age.

The issue of drink driving limits does suffer from a lack of clarity with many motorists unaware of what exactly the drink driving limits are. Only 21% of respondents could correctly identify the number of milligrams of alcohol per litre of blood (80mgs/100ml) that is allowed. One third of respondents nominate a figure that is higher than the correct amount and 22% identify a figure that is lower than the correct amount.

Furthermore, a large proportion of drivers take a subjective view of their own personal tolerance for drink. Again younger motorists were more aware of the dangers of even having just one drink and driving. When asked to express their personal tolerance level in units and still be under the legal limit, 64% of motorists under 34 said zero units, whereas only 42% of those over 50 said zero units.

On the issue of provisional drivers, just 10% of provisional licence holders always drive accompanied by a fully licensed driver whereas 43% never do.  There is growing support for improving the driver training programme in Ireland.  77% of respondents believe it should be compulsory to take driving lessons.  Currently the average number of lessons taken is 11.6 yet this is significantly behind other jurisdictions where learner drivers can take as many as 45 hours of formal lessons. 

Over half of respondents also believe the driving test should be made more stringent and most respondents also support the introduction of road safety training onto the Leaving Certificate curriculum.

"We hope that the Hibernian Motoring Report will play a strong role in raising awareness of motorists' behaviour on the road and ultimately help to improve road safety."  said Mr. O'Driscoll.