Intensified monitoring of drunk driving on holiday home routes this week

July, the quintessential holiday month for Finns, is coming to an end. Now it is time to return home form the summer cottages and other resting places for thousands of people. For others who worked in July, now the relaxation begins.

In a week in which a large number of road trips are expected, the police have announced that they will carry out a special traffic surveillance operation to prevent accidents.

According to the information released by the authorities, from 29 July to 4 August 2019, the police will engage in intensified drunk driving monitoring, particularly in holiday home municipalities, throughout the country.

The Police remind drivers that almost a third of the entire year’s road deaths occur during the summer. The number of cases involving drunk driving and causing a serious traffic hazard (speeding) increases in the summer too.

Traffic accidents claimed 24 lives in June and 99 since the beginning of 2019, according to Statistics Finland.

Summer events

“Young road users with risk behaviour associated with things like summer events and other leisure activities form a special risk group,” says Chief Superintendent Timo Ajaste of the National Police Board.

A typical accident involving personal injury during the summer is running off the road outside densely populated areas late in the evening or at night. The accident often involves speeding or drunk driving.

“Nobody should take the risk and drive while drunk or be a passenger in a car with a drunk driver,” Ajaste says.