Drivers from now on must reach the blood alcohol concentration at zero to be allowed to drive vehicle. (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNA) – Up to 68 percent ofpeople who drink alcohol in restaurants drive home afterwards, according to a study by theVietnamese-German University’s Vietnamese-German Transport Research Centre ondrunk driving in Vietnam.
The study was tabled at a recent conference in Ho Chi Minh City to discuss the influenceof alcohol on driving.
The data was based on feedback from 300 people at sixrestaurants in the city who had drunk alcohol before riding their motorbikeshome, said the centre’s director Vu Anh Tuan.
Researchers also found that 36 percent of the drunk drivers failed to signalthey were turning, 26 percent rode on the wrong side of the road and 17 percentdid not turn on the headlight.
But most of the violators said they felt safe when drivinghome after drinking.
The study did not say if any of them met with accidents.
It also shows that more than 70 percent of motorcycleaccidents occur due to alcohol.
Another study by the centre on a vehicle simulator found thatwhen the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) reaches 20mg/100ml, the possibilityof accidents tripled.
It went up to five times when the BAC reached 50mg/100ml.
The city TrafficSafety Department plans to get experts to organise seminars and trainingprogrammes for local authorities to enable them to carry out communication campaignsagainst drunk driving.
The traffic police will carry out more checks for drunkdriving and severely penalise violations.
The city will also organise programmes at schools to warnchildren about the effects of drunk driving.
Le Huy Tri, Deputy Director of the municipal Traffic SafetyResearch Centre, said the recent nation-wide traffic campaign from July 15 toAugust 14 had temporarily brought down drink driving violations. But theeffect did not last long, he admitted.
According to NguyenVu Hanh Phuc, head of the department, every year there are 25,000 cases ofdrunk driving in the country.
In April in Hanoi, a drunk driver lost control of his car andslammed into a sanitation worker while she was working on the street, instantlykilling her.
He seemed to have been so drunk that he was not sober enoughto speak to the police until the next morning./.
VNA
