Police statistics have placed the Fermanagh and Omagh policing district as having the second highest rate of drink and drug-driving detections in Northern Ireland in 2025. There were 22 detections for every 10,000 people aged over 16, a figure only surpassed by the neighbouring Mid Ulster area.

Over half of those caught were between 30 and 49 years old, and one in four offences were detected on a Sunday. The highest reading recorded by police was more than five times the legal alcohol limit.

Drink and drug impairment remains the third most common principal factor in fatal and serious injury collisions across Northern Ireland.

A specific enforcement operation on Monday night in Omagh resulted in the arrest of a banned driver. The man was driving a van and was found to be three times over the legal limit. Police stated that drink driving destroys lives and causes serious harm on the roads.

That same day, the Police Service of Northern Ireland launched a road safety campaign in the South Area, which covers the Fermanagh and Omagh district. This year, 42 people have died on Northern Ireland’s roads, with 19 of those fatalities occurring in the South Area.

South Area Commander Chief Superintendent Norman Haslett described the loss of life as unacceptable. He noted the statistic that in 2026 a person dies on the roads every five days, meaning families receive devastating news with that frequency. He urged all road users to change their behaviour and take responsibility for safety.

The issue has prompted renewed calls for tougher sentences from the family of a young man killed by a drink-driver. Peter Dolan, from Killyclogher, and his wife Niamh have campaigned for over a decade since their son Enda, aged 18, was struck by an intoxicated driver on a pavement in Belfast in 2014. The driver had consumed 13 alcoholic drinks and taken drugs.

The Dolans described the latest detection figures as disturbing. They argue that the impact of such offences lasts generations. They are calling for life sentences to be available in Northern Ireland for causing death by dangerous driving, as in England and Wales, and hope the current Stormont mandate will see the maximum tariff increased from 14 years to 20 years.