On the Traffic Abstinence Day 6 June and throughout the Midsummer week, the Police will focus intensively on drunken driving controls in all Finland. The Police will also pay attention to the drivers’ traffic-related health aspects.
Having consumed alcohol or otherwise intoxicated, you should not get behind the wheel this weekend, or ever for that matter. The most important reason is, of course, that the intoxicants increase the risk of traffic accidents and deaths significantly, Superintendent Timo Ajaste of the National Police Board underlines.
A typical serious traffic accident caused by a drunken driver is losing control and driving off the road in sparsely populated areas. Weekend evenings and nights are particularly risky times.
As June is one of the months with the most frequent serious accidents involving drunken driving, it is necessary to focus the intensified controls on this particular time of the year, and especially on weekends, Superintendent Ajaste adds.
In January to April this year, the drunken or intoxicated driving accidents have caused 93 deaths or injuries in total. This is a smaller number than last year during the same period. Likewise, the total number of drunken driving violations reported or known to the Police is five percent down during the early half of the year.
The national Abstinence in Traffic Day is 6 June 2021. The intensified drunken driving and driver health controls take place between 16 and 22 June. In addition, a 24-hour marathon of drunken driving controls will be organised on 19 June.
