Gardaí urge people to not get in a car with a drunk driver this New Year's

Eva Osborne

Gardaí are urging people to not get into a car with a drunk driver.

74 people were arrested for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol last weekend, and there have been 178 deaths on Irish roads so far this year.

Over the Christmas period alone, there were eight fatalities on Irish roads and 18 serious collisions which resulted in 20 people receiving serious and life-threatening injuries.

These incidences occurred during the period Friday, December 20th, to Sunday, December 29th.

Chief superintendent of the Garda National Roads Policing Bureau, Jane Humphries, said: "What I would ask is, especially passengers who are getting into vehicles where you know the driver is under the influence, that you need to call them out.

"You need to say to them that you should not be driving because they're taking your life in their hands and you're actually giving them permission to do that by getting into the car with them."