MORE than 300 drunk drivers had been detained in the city during the first eight months of this year, more than double in all 2008. Traffic police have been cracking down on violators, who are frequently the cause of fatal accidents.
Only 30 drivers were detained for drunk driving in 2007, compared with 120 in 2008, according to a news release by the Shenzhen traffic police yesterday.
Police are meting out the toughest punishment ever used on drunk drivers, who can be detained for up to 15 days, and have their driving licenses suspended for six months and revoked for a second offense.
The stiffer punishment seems to be raising awareness among drivers.
Before attending a farewell banquet to celebrate the daughter of a friend heading off to college yesterday, Yang Wenzhong, a teacher of Shenzhen Polytechnic, reached a deal with his wife: He drinks, she drives. Sitting at the table they learned that other families had struck the same deal.
“I don’t want to be caught,” Yang said. “It would be shameful, especially with my son and wife in the car. It is good for police to be tougher on this.”
A further indication of the crackdown’s effect, sales of rice wine and beer at Yijiangnan Restaurant in Nanshan District had dropped by 40 percent, said Chen, the customer service manager.
“In the past weeks, diners who came by taxis increased and sales of liquor dropped,” Chen said.
Most drivers picked up by police didn’t believe they were drunk, insisting they had drank only a bottle of beer or a few cups of liquor, according to Jiang Yu, a traffic police officer in Nanshan District, who had participated in several actions on drunk driving since July.
The enforcement has made one product an overnight smash hit: instant test strips that measure the body’s alcohol level. A driver need only hold a strip in the mouth for 10 seconds to see if it’s safe to drive. Some restaurants in Xiangmihu and Jingtianbei have started offering the strips as a service. The slogan? “If you want to drive, please take a test.”
“This strip is very useful and interesting,” said a diner named Zhang at a restaurant in Dongbin Road in Nanshan District. “The different colors on the strip can instantly tell you your drinking status. If the color turns dark blue, I will call a taxi.”
According to the law, a driver is drunk if his blood alcohol level exceeds 80 milligrams per 100 milliliter.
“If a driver drinks 100 milliliters of rice wine or three bottles of beer, he would be drunk,” said Jiang.
Li said, however, that the alcohol affects each individual differently because of factors such as age, physical size, fat content, sex and drinking habits.
Traffic accidents in the city had fallen by 20 percent and fatalities by 10 percent from January to July, compared with the same period last year. Traffic police said this was partly due to the reduction of drunk driving and violations by dump trucks.
In the first seven months of the year, 353 people were killed and 1,299 injured in 1,170 accidents.
Han Ximin