Drinking and driving

Drinking and driving. Somehow the two activities seem to be inextricably linked here, even though the laws against drunken driving were tightened up at the beginning of the year (look here for more information). Here's my translation of a recent article I found here.

459 drunken drivers caught in 1 week

In one week, police officers tested the sobriety of 39,397 drivers. A total of 459 drunken drivers were caught. The police department announced that 331 drivers were mildly intoxicated [.41–1.5 permille], 143 had a medium degree of intoxication [1.51–2.5 permille], and 48 were seriously intoxicated [>2.51 permille].

In Lithuania, as in many other European countries, the police organized a special campaign to test the sobriety of drivers on 8–14 December.

The initiator of this campaign was the European Traffic Police Network (TISPOL).

The most drunken drivers were found in Kaunas County (88), Panevezys County (55), Vilnius County (53), and Siauliai County (51).

During a similar campaign that took place in Lithuania in December last year (10–16), 518 drunken drivers were caught.

During another campaign that was organized by TISPOL and took place on 2–8 June, police caught 491 drunken drivers.

In the first 11 months of this year, 469 traffic accidents were caused by drunken drivers, 38.3% (or 291 accidents) fewer than the amount that were caused by drunken drivers in that time period of the preceding year. That amounts to 10.4% of all registered automobile accidents in which people are injured. Of the accidents caused by intoxicated drivers, 42 people lost their lives (29 fewer [than in 2007]) and 709 were injured (445 fewer [than in 2007]).