Police operation results show one in 71 drivers over the alcohol limit

A recent drink-drive enforcement operation saw police conduct 1,134,924 roadside breath tests for alcohol, of which 15,791 were positive. Motorists were also checked for drugs in the operation, and 3,157 offences were detected. The operation was organised by TISPOL in 27 countries between 7 and 13 December 2015. TISPOL general secretary Ruth Purdie said: “These figures show a continued decline in the proportion of drivers who fail breath tests, which is good news. “However, if we scale up that proport
February 10, 2016 Read time: 1 min
A recent drink-drive enforcement operation saw police conduct 1,134,924 roadside breath tests for alcohol, of which 15,791 were positive. Motorists were also checked for drugs in the operation, and 3,157 offences were detected. The operation was organised by 650 TISPOL in 27 countries between 7 and 13 December 2015.

TISPOL general secretary Ruth Purdie said: “These figures show a continued decline in the proportion of drivers who fail breath tests, which is good news.

“However, if we scale up that proportion to include all the 300 million licence holders across Europe, then we reach an estimate of more than four million drink-drivers.

“This shows that drink-driving remains a massive problem which will continue to threaten our efforts to meet the EU’s 2020 casualty reduction targets.

Related Content

  • October 24, 2017
    Outsourcing security weakness for Sweden’s driver and vehicle data
    The security of driver and vehicle data hit the headlines this summer in Sweden and its authorities are still dealing with the fallout. David Crawford reports. epercussions from Sweden’s vehicle data outsourcing scandal continue to reverberate. Transportstyrelsen, the government’s transport agency, came under fire this summer for risking the personal security of over five million motorists by failing to implement full security checks on personnel in other countries to whom individual work packages could
    Read More
  • January 30, 2012
    Cross border enforcement a logical step
    The logic supporting a cross-border enforcement Directive for the European Union (EU) is both detailed and compelling. The White Paper on European transport policy published in 2001 included the ambitious objective of reducing by 50 per cent by 2010 the number of people killed on the roads of the EU. But since 2005 the reduction in the number of road deaths has been slowing down: overall, the period from 2001 until 2009 saw the number of fatalities decrease by 36 per cent. According to Community indicators,
    Read More
  • May 27, 2014
    Is the smartphone a driver's best friend?
    The smartphone is a driver’s best friend – or so it seems: apps help them navigate, avoid congestion, identify a parking space, locate an EV charge point, find the area’s cheapest fuel, check the weather, pay tolls … the list goes on. While some have voice actuation, the whole issue of driver-related apps still concerns me. The World Health Organisation / National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHSA) report Mobile Phone Use: A Growing Problem of Driver Distraction says: ‘…studies suggest that driver
    Read More
  • April 20, 2015
    European enforcement marathon sees 12,000 plus speeding penalties issued
    TISPOL, the European Traffic Police Network has announced the provisional results from the first pan European 24-hour speed enforcement marathon, carried out on Thursday and Friday, 16 and 17 April. So far, a total of 122,581 speeding offences were detected exceeding speed limits between 6am on Thursday and 6am on Friday. 17 out of 22 countries have now provided data. Of these, 116,479 were detected by police officers, with 6,102 detections using automatic devices. A total of 4,253,386 vehicles wer
    Read More

Highlighted Content