Europe’s drink drive crackdown

A series of controls to enforce drink driving and drug driving regulations across Europe saw police conduct more than 900,000 breath tests in a seven-day period, of which nearly 18,000 were positive. Motorists were also checked for drugs in the operation, organised by the European Traffic Police Network (TISPOL), between 4 and 10 June. In total, 928,863 drivers were controlled. There were 17,970 alcohol offences and 2,773 drug offences detected.
August 22, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
A series of controls to enforce drink driving and drug driving regulations across Europe saw police conduct more than 900,000 breath tests in a seven-day period, of which nearly 18,000 were positive. Motorists were also checked for drugs in the operation, organised by the European Traffic Police Network (4753 TISPOL), between 4 and 10 June. In total, 928,863 drivers were controlled. There were 17,970 alcohol offences and 2,773 drug offences detected.

In addition, during the operation, police officers detected a total of 3,369 other crimes, including 277 drug detections, 47 cases of human trafficking and 27 firearms offences.

“Drug-driving and drink-driving remain significant contributory factors in road deaths,” said TISPOL president Pasi Kemppainen. “We have made progress in helping make more and more road users aware of the dangers of driving after taking drugs or alcohol, or both.

Meanwhile, TISPOL’s pan-European speed enforcement operation continues throughout this week. The operation, which involves both static speed detection and roadside officer intervention, forms a key part of the organisation’s strategy designed to reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured on Europe’s roads.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Road safety challenge for Europe
    December 3, 2012
    Europe’s road safety drive is highlighting key issues - Mike Woof reports In Europe there is a growing understanding that alcohol use amongst drivers still has to be tackled effectively. Accident data reveals that safety standards are improving across most European countries, with steady reductions in numbers of serious injuries and fatalities. But there remains a problem with alcohol use amongst many drivers and it is amongst this group that accident levels have not fallen. In Spain in particular, there ha
    Read More
  • Drink driving concern for Europe
    November 24, 2015
    Drink drive enforcement still has issues in Europe, according to Pan-European police body TISPOL. It is estimated that 230 (14%) of the 1,713 road deaths in the UK are due to drinking and driving. Meanwhile drink driving is the cause of around 5,000 road deaths in Europe. For England, Wales and Northern Ireland the limit for driving is still 80mg (0.8) of alcohol/100ml of blood. Scotland reduced its limit to 50mg (0.5) of alcohol/100ml of blood in December 2014, bringing it into line with most other Europea
    Read More
  • TISPOL video highlights Finnish crackdown on drink drivers
    December 17, 2013
    Traffic police in Finland have been carrying out breath tests across the country in a bid to reduce the around “58 cases a day” of drink-driving detected on the nation’s highways. A recent breath test day operation was held in Mikkeli, southern Finland and filmed by TISPOL (the European Traffic Police Network). Speaking to the TISPOL film crew during the test day, Finland Traffic Police Chief Inspector Jarmo Puustinen said, “We are doing this because we have an average of 21,000 cases monthly where people
    Read More
  • European Transport Safety Commission makes call for traffic safety boost
    July 10, 2015
    In 2013, 7,600 people died in road traffic while cycling or walking in European Union (EU) countries – the equivalent of a commercial airliner full of passengers being lost every week Because of this risk of death, the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) wants vehicle manufacturers and local authorities to pay special attention to improving safety for cyclists, walkers and pedestrians. In a new report, the ETSC said the numbers being killed are falling more slowly than those for vehicle occupants. Over
    Read More

Highlighted Content