Moderately Drunk-Driving In Kerry County Given Green Light
Drunk-driving disciplined no longer
When people are found driving drunk in Kerry County, they are given a pass rather than disciplined for the crime. Older folks in the area get depressed as they are stuck at home and feel scared that a drink or two might trigger them to lose their licenses, according to Councilor Danny Healy-Rae. This is why he drafted the legislation.
"I see the merit in having a stricter rule of law for when there's a massive volume of traffic and where there's busy roads with massive speed," Healy-Rae told Irish newspaper The Journal. "But on the roads I'm talking about, you couldn't do any more than 20 or 30 miles per hour and it's not a big deal. I don't see any big issue with it."
Alcohol necessary for some people
One of the biggest troubles in the area is isolation, according to Healy-Rae. He believes that too many older people are committing suicide after being left alone without licenses in their home.
"All the wisdom and all the wit and all the culture that they had is being lost as a result," he said.
Some upset about this
Kerry Mayor Terry O'Brien holds a very different view of the county's drunk-driving regulation, saying it "doesn't make any sense" and is "incredibly dangerous." O'Brien also claims it places too much interpretive burden on barkeeps to determine whether a patron is only relatively drunk, versus severely impaired.
"I don't know what expertise one would have to look at someone in a bar to give them a permit to drive a car after any alcohol," O'Brien added.
Alcohol Action Ireland rep Conor Cullen is in O'Brien's corner when it comes to the drunk-driving motion. He noted that anti-drunk-driving measures have lowered Ireland's road fatalities by 42 percent over the past four years. Cullen feels that the new drunk-driving permissiveness will only serve to tear down the work that has been done.
"Almost one in three crash deaths in Ireland are alcohol-related," Cullen said. "Even in small amounts, alcohol impairs driving ability - any amount of alcohol increases the risk of involvement in a fatal crash."
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