Aggravated endangerment of traffic safety and drunken driving in Midsummer traffic

The police conducted visible surveillance of vehicle and waterborne traffic during Midsummer between Thursday 19 June and Sunday 22 June.

“In fact, most of the traffic offences that occurred in the outbound and return traffic over the Midsummer period were ones leading to minor vehicle accidents. These were largely due to driving with too short safety distances,” says Chief Superintendent Heikki Ihalainen of the National Police Board.

At Midsummer, the police breathalysed and carried out drug tests on about 26,000 drivers. Of them, 340 persons were guilty of drunken driving and 25 of drunken driving in waterborne traffic. This means that alcohol was too much involved in Midsummer traffic.

Between Thursday and Sunday, five people died in traffic offences. One of these was a 17-year-old driver.

“The vehicle in question still had studded winter tyres, the properties of which are poorer than those of summer tyres when you have to brake, for example,” says Heikki Ihalainen.

The amendments to the Road Traffic Act and Vehicles Act enable the police to intervene in micromobility

High speeds continue to be a deadly thing in traffic, and sometimes they are also associated with alcohol. During this Midsummer, 99 persons were guilty of aggravated endangerment of traffic safety. Another 45 people were guilty of drunkenness while operating a light electric vehicle and received a traffic penalty fee of 200 euros for it.

The new act prohibits, among other things, the riding of a light electric vehicle when the rider has a minimum of 0.22 mg per litre of alcohol in exhaled air or a minimum of 0.5 per mill of alcohol in blood or if there is an active ingredient of a narcotic substance or its metabolite in the blood.

“Now that we have unambiguous legislation concerning these light vehicles, we can also monitor them and intervene in violations,” says Heikki Ihalainen.