Skip to main content

Random roadside tests on drivers have been carried out on drivers in Switzerland

Police in the Swiss border city of Basel recently carried out random breath tests on drivers to check for alcohol use. The tests use conventional technology for detecting whether drivers are over the limit for alcohol. The measures are considered highly effective in providing a deterrent to drivers for getting behind the wheel after drinking. A pan-European TISPOL operation last month saw police conduct 1,203,095 roadside breath tests for alcohol, of which 13,236 were positive. Motorists were also checked f
January 15, 2013 Read time: 1 min
Police in the Swiss border city of Basel recently carried out random breath tests on drivers to check for alcohol use. The tests use conventional technology for detecting whether drivers are over the limit for alcohol. The measures are considered highly effective in providing a deterrent to drivers for getting behind the wheel after drinking.

A pan-European 4753 TISPOL operation last month saw police conduct 1,203,095 roadside breath tests for alcohol, of which 13,236 were positive. Motorists were also checked for drugs in the operation, and 1,830 offences were detected. The operation was organised in 29 countries between 10th and 16th December.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • 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
  • Pan-European enforcement of driving laws due
    August 27, 2013
    Agreements are being reached that will see Pan-European enforcement of driving regulations. Drivers will now face being penalised for any offences committed in other European countries. The change is due on 7th November 2013. After this date EU Member States will commence the cross border exchange of data relating to road traffic offences. For this scheme to work, eight offences have been listed in the data exchange programme. These are; speeding, not using a seatbelt, red light running, drink driving, driv
  • UK police carry out spot checks on suspect vehicles
    December 18, 2014
    UK officers from Dyfed-Powys Police in Wales recently carried out vehicle checks on a Saturday evening shift. The focus for these checks were on enforcement of drink drive legislation and the officers stopped a number of other vehicles during the evening.

    By midnight the officers had conducted more than 85 breath tests. There was only one positive test, provided by a male driver who blew a reading of 85 (the alcohol/breath limit in England and Wales is 35).
  • 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