The police will intensively monitor drunk driving this weekend

With the arrival of good weather, more and more people take their cars in the weekends and move temporarily away from their usual places of residence. If you are also going to do it next weekend, remember that the binomial alcohol and car is a bad combination, which can have disastrous consequences for your safety and also for your pocket.

The Finnish Police informed today in a press release that "drunk driving will be intensively monitored nationwide on the Sober Driving Day (6 June) and on the following weekend, 7–9 June, with the monitoring resources available to the police departments".

According to Heikki Ihalainen, Chief Superintendent of the National Police Board, around tens of thousands breathalyser tests will be carried out.

"If you have consumed alcohol or are otherwise intoxicated, you should not drive on this weekend, either. The most important reason is of course that the risk for injury and death in traffic increases considerably due to intoxicants. The risk to get caught this weekend is higher than normally", says Ihalainen.

30 dead and 495 injured in 2018

According to preliminary information, 30 people died and 495 people were injured in drunk driving accidents in 2018. Ihalainen states that luckily, this number is smaller than in the previous years.

Many young people die or get injured in drunk driving accidents. Of the fatalities and those injured, over one third were aged 15 to 24.

"Personal injuries related to drunk driving cases are more common in the summer months. This is why the police is conducting preventive operations to stop drunk driving already before the summer months", says Ihalainen.

Approximately 19,000 drunk drivers were caught last year.