The police must reintroduce the alcohol trap to tackle drink drivers. That is more effective than increasing penalties, says the government’s main advisor for road safety.
Today in this newspaper, the national scientific institute for road safety research (Swov) argues for the reintroduction of large-scale alcohol checks. “Alcohol crashes are reduced by 17 percent when alcohol checks are used regularly,” explains traffic expert Saskia de Craen on the basis of several scientific studies. “In Australia, where the police really put a lot of people aside, the number of alcohol-related accidents even decreased by 22 percent.”
According to the government’s chief road safety adviser, road enforcement on alcohol has “decreased enormously” in recent years. De Craen: “The police indicate that they no longer carry out large-scale alcohol checks, because they are outdated within fifteen minutes via social media.” But according to Swov, the police should not be discouraged by this. “If friends text each other to warn, you have the information exactly where you want it.”
Potential crooks
Enforcement will encourage pub-goers to arrange their transport properly next time, argues De Craen. “Traffic enforcement is not just about catching crooks, but rather about giving potential crooks the idea: I could be caught.”
In the first ten months of this year, more people were ticketed for driving under the influence than in the whole of 2021. Until November, the police issued more than 36,000 fines. All of last year: 31,600. The police say they do not carry out more alcohol checks than before. According to Swov, the fact that traffic enforcement has decreased is ‘a plausible explanation for the increase’ in the number of people driving with a drink.
The VVD recently argued for a tougher approach to notorious drunk drivers. Now the driver’s license can be withdrawn for a maximum of ten years. The VVD wants to make this a lifelong collection. “But this is not the right way to prevent accidents,” the traffic expert parries that proposal. For notorious drunk drivers, increasing the penalties does not have much effect, argues Swov. “Abroad you see that even the heaviest possible punishment, imprisonment, has little influence.” On Tuesday, the House of Representatives will debate road safety.
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