Alcohol behind one in six deaths in Czech traffic accidents

The death toll due to drunk driving has been rising for several years. In 2007 the police registered a total of 36 such victims, in the following year 80 victims and last year 123 victims.

Of the overall death toll in 2009, that reached 832, the 123 victims who died due to drunk driving made up almost 15 percent.

Alcohol caused a total of 5,725 traffic accidents in 2009, in which 2,658 people were injured.

The largest number of fatal accidents under the influence of alcohol occurred in the summer months.

In an effort to improve the unfavourable trend, the drivers have been subjected to breath tests as a compulsory part of all car checks since January 1, 2010.

The preliminary figures for the first two weeks of January show that this measure is meaningful, deputy police president Ivan Bilek told journalists today.

"For now, 133 traffic accidents under the influence of alcohol have been registered, compared to 178 in [the first two weeks of] 2009," Bilek said.

Bilek said the police are definitely opposed to the proposal that driving with a limited level of alcohol in blood not be a misdemeanour. The zero tolerance of alcohol is one of the main measures the Czech state takes to prevent the growing number of deaths caused by drunk driving.

The Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD) is pushing for a bill under which the driving under the influence of alcohol not be a misdemeanour if the alcohol level is below 0.24 per thousand.

The other strongest party, the Civic Democrats (ODS), is opposed to the proposal, as is traffic police head Leos Trzil.

Trzil told CTK last week that he neither wants to abolish the breath tests as a compulsory part of every car check by the traffic police, nor does he want a limited level of alcohol in drivers´ blood to be tolerated.

Autor: ČTK
www.ctk.cz