'Completely unacceptable' - motorist driving on wrong side of motorway was 'ten times the limit'

A young man is facing prosecution before the courts after he was found to be ten times the legal alcohol limit while driving on the wrong side of one of the busiest roads in the country.

Gardai have highlighted the detection which took place on the M6 motorway, in County Galway, at the weekend.

In a post on social media, they say members of the Tuam Roads Policing Unit were on duty in the early hours of Sunday, December 1 as part of a Christmas and New Year road safety operation.

At around 1.15am - just over an hour after the operation began - they were alerted to a car being driven on the wrong side of the M6 in County Galway.

Gardai immediately responded and within minutes they caught up with the driver. "He failed to stop when prompted to do so and continued driving in the wrong direction," read a post on Facebook.

#SaferRoads pic.twitter.com/31LibpVVtt

— An Garda Síochána (@GardaTraffic) December 3, 2024

Gardai say when stopped, the young driver failed a roadside breath test and was then arrested and conveyed to a garda station in County Galway.

"As a novice driver, he tested more than 10 times the drink driving limit - over an hour after the initial call was received," reads the post.

In the case of novice drivers, the legal alcohol limit is less than half of the concentration allowed for fully licensed drivers.

READ ALSO: Gardaí in Cork arrest driver on suspicion of driving intoxicated and with one tyre missing!

A post on X, formerly Twitter highlighting the detection, has  been viewed thousands of times while dozens of people have commented and shared the Facebook post.

One person wrote: "A lifetime driving ban and a prison sentence here is the only way to send a strong message out, that this is completely unacceptable. Too many lives are being lost on our roads" while another stated: "Take him off the road forever."