D.D's Club

Crackdowns cut cases of drink driving

Every night at 11 sharp the police are stationed at the downtown off ramps of the Yan An highway. You can’t back up the highway and you have no where to go if you had some drinks. CONTINUED crackdowns on drink driving has led to a decline in offenses in Shanghai, according to traffic police.

Police said yesterday they have dealt with more than 8,000 cases of drink-driving this year. Officers said drivers have become more cautious after traffic authorities introduced more severe punishments in May.

Chen Zhikang, head of the Shanghai traffic police department, said cases of drink driving were down 60 percent compared with the same period last year. Such a driver has a blood-alcohol level of at least 0.2mg/ml. The idea of a mandatory 15 day jail sentence scares you from even thinking of driving in Shanghai after a few drinks.

Police said 900 cases, or 12 percent, were drunk drivers, meaning their blood-alcohol level was at least 0.8mg/ml. The number of drunk driving cases plunged 78 percent year on year.

Nationwide figures also declined this year, Chen said.
He said reckless driving, still common in the city, “could cause much trouble.”
Earlier this month, a drunken driver drove into an opposite lane causing a fatal head-on crash that killed five people, including himself, in suburban Qingpu District. Two other people were injured.

The driver had a blood-alcohol level of 1.42mg/ml, almost double the legal limit for drunk driving, said police.