HCM City begins crackdown on drunk driving

January 16, 2019 - 10:00

The HCM City traffic police have begun a month-long campaign against drunk driving beginning Tuesday

A police officer tests the breath of a driver for alcohol on National Highway No 1A in HCM City. — VNS File Photo
Viet Nam News

HCM CITY   —  The HCM City traffic police have begun a month-long campaign against drunk driving beginning Tuesday.

In all 24 districts officers will do random tests on the streets.

Drivers would be tested for alcohol and drugs between 6pm and 2am, Lieutenant Colonel Huỳnh Trung Phong, head of the HCM City Road and Railway Police Division, said.

The campaign, to last until February 16, will focus on passenger cars, vans, cars, and motorbikes.

Phong said the campaign would be divided into two phases. In the first phase, the HCM City mobile police and ward-level officers will test drivers for alcohol and drugs.

When a driver is found with signs of an intoxicant, they will collaborate with district health agencies to identify the substance.

In the second phase, the division will collaborate with district police units and preventive medicine centres to test drivers at the city’s Eastern and Western Bus Terminals and Cát Lái Port.

According to statistics from the city Department of Transport, last year there were 3,643 traffic accidents, down 6.3 per cent from 2017, in which 702 people were killed and 2,517 others were injured.

The death rate was almost unchanged but the injury rate was down 15 per cent from the previous year. — VNS

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