Fewer drivers blew positive during the summer BOB campaign | Inland

During the two corona summers of 2020 and 2021, significantly fewer alcohol tests were performed, but the percentage of positive tests was a lot higher, at 4.3 and 3.3 percent respectively. Before the corona crisis, even more testing was done, but also with more positive cases: 2.8 and 2.7 percent in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

This summer, local and federal police conducted more than 3,800 alcohol checks each day, Vias said. Most drivers (97.5 percent) blew negative. “That means that the vast majority have understood the message of the campaign. The goal, of course, is to convince 100 percent of drivers not to drive when they’ve been drinking,” said Vias.

About 2.5 percent had drunk too much this summer to get behind the wheel. About 2,554 drivers had between 0.5 and 0.8 per mille in the blood, 5,418 drivers had 0.8 per mille or more in the blood. Drunk driving is especially a problem at night. During the week nights, 7.5 percent of the drivers checked blew positive, during the weekend nights 5.9 percent.

In accidents, more than one in ten (10.6 percent) of the drivers turned out to be positive. “That clearly shows that the combination between drinking alcohol and driving a car safely is impossible,” says Vias. The institute points out that in the first half of the year, more than 2,000 injury crashes occurred in which the driver was intoxicated, or about 11 a day.

The federal police are also qualifying the low number of positive tests this summer. “However, we are not completely satisfied. This is only possible when 0 percent of the drivers have had too much to drink behind the wheel. Drunk driving remains a killer and our mission is to guarantee road safety.” The police will therefore continue to conduct alcohol checks “in the interest of every road user”, it sounds.