Government needs to act before someone else dies from driving under the influence of nitrous oxide, warns Ward

Sinn Féin spokesperson for Dublin, Mark Ward TD, has called for action to be taken by the government to tackle drivers under the influence of nitrous oxide.

The Dublin Mid-West TD was speaking after raising the issue with the Minister for Transport in the Dáil this week.

Sinn Féin will be bringing forward legislation at second stage in the Dail on Tuesday (January 20) to regulate the sale of Nitrous Oxide

Ward warned, “nitrous oxide is becoming more prevalently abused in our society.”

He said, “its sale is being targeted towards children and larger industrial canisters are being sold cheaply on the internet.”

“An increasing issue that we are seeing across Europe is road collisions associated with drivers under the influence of nitrous oxide; there have been deaths in many of these cases, including a recent death in Dublin, where a young man was the victim of a hit and run, where the driver was suspected to be under the influence of nitrous oxide.”

Ward pointed to a recent Dutch study, which showed that a person’s ability to drive is impaired for up to 45 minutes after taking nitrous oxide, and the substance can be found in the person’s breath or blood, up to 60 minutes later.

“Last week I wrote to the Minister for Transport asking if he has plans to amend the Road Traffic Act to include nitrous oxide in the substances that are tested by Gardaí for suspected drug driving. His response was that there is no plans to do so at present,” Ward explained.

“I have introduced legislation that would regulate the sale of nitrous oxide, reducing the amount of it being abused in our communities. The government have not taken a proactive approach to this.”

“While the sale of nitrous oxide is unregulated, it is important that we bring in measures to detect it in roadside testing, so that we can prevent any further loss of life.

“I have always stressed the urgency of this. The government need to act before anyone else is killed.”