Coming or going? Not without a breathalyzer test. A stop check at the narrow road leading to summer cabins at Kitkajärvi in Oulu, northern Finland on August 2, 2018. Picture: Oulu Police Department
Cabins. That’s where many Finns reside during the summer months with their family and friends. Wine corks are popped. Champagne is bubbling. Beer after beer is swilled down.
Occasionally the liquor runs out. Then some half-bright, half-drunk fellow drives to get more.
Since the beginning of Monday, July 30, the police have conducted 16,300 breathalyzer tests on remote roads across the country.
“We have met 36 drunken drivers, come across nine incidents of drugs use and even found 19 wanted people,” said Heikki Ihalainen from the National Police Board.
But why so many breathalyzers?
Since last Monday, the police, during their week-long campaign, have been watching the narrow and remote cabin roads, which usually are not being prioritized by the law enforcement.
According to the police, as much as almost a third of all deaths in traffic occur between the months of June and July.
And even more, the number of incidents of drunken driving and speeding grow during the summer.
According to the calculations of the police, during their campaign, every 452nd person who was exposed to a breathalyzer test was a drunken driver.
Normally every 700th drunken driver gets caught in a breathalyzer stop check.
