Skip to main content

TISPOL video highlights Finnish crackdown on drink drivers

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
December 17, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
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 4753 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 are driving under the influence of alcohol. Every day we catch approximately 58 drivers. This is quite a big amount, I would say.”

“We are doing a lot of screening tests and a lot of cases come from traffic [police] control. We also get tips from the public.”

The filmed traffic police tests in Mikkeli were carried out in both directions of a popular 60km/hour highway, in sub-zero degree temperatures. The results of the test day operation are still to be made public.

In Finland the authorities have access to a database of a driver’s income, with fines proportionate to the income of the offender.

Similar anti-drink drive traffic police operations are continuing all across Europe throughout the month of December into early January 2014.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Norwegian trucker’s bad overtake on video
    June 24, 2013
    A truck driver in Norway made a classic mistake when overtaking another vehicle on a blind corner. Luckily no-one was hurt. But as this in-car footage from a Norwegian police vehicle shows, the consequences could have been disastrous. The Norwegian authorities are tough on driving offences and the truck driver will be having good reason to think long and hard about this very careless manoeuvre. This video was made available to World Highways through pan-European police body TISPOL.
  • Building a replacement bridge in record time
    March 13, 2023
    The construction of a new bridge in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to replace a collapsed structure has been carried out in record time
  • Meet Die Autobahn des Bundes
    November 8, 2021
    Only recently has Germany created a central organisation to maintain and develop the nation’s 13,200km of motorways, called autobahns. Moving from 16 state-run operation centres to one lead centre is a challenge but essential, says Gerd Riegelhuth.
  • How data mining and the intelligence it creates is helping sites run more effectively and efficiently
    December 13, 2022
    In this, the third in our series of top-level roundtable discussions led by World Highways, editor Mike Woof and roundtable host Nadira Tudor talk machine control technology with three world-class experts from Leica Geosystems (part of Hexagon), Topcon, and Trimble. There’s never been a more exciting time to be in construction as innovation makes us more productive, more efficient, more sustainable, and better connected. Autonomy means opportunity.