Health ministry to collect professional feedback on alcohol concentration limits
The Department of Medical Service Administration under the Ministry of Health is collecting feedback from experts and specialised units in setting alcohol concentration limits in driver’s blood or breath.
Traffic police check alcohol concentration of a driver in Dak Lak province. (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The Department of Medical Service Administrationunder the Ministry of Health is collecting feedback from experts andspecialised units in setting alcohol concentration limits in driver’s blood orbreath.
It will serve as a foundation under the perspective of health sector to makeproposal on which level of alcohol concentration should be allowed on driving.
Nguyen Trong Khoa, deputy head of the department, said the health ministry isin favour of administrative fines against drivers with alcohol concentration intheir blood or breath.
He said the National Traffic Safety Committee will work with the health ministryto collect statistics on the declining number of accidents since the Law onPrevention and Control of the Harmful Effects of Alcohol and Beer, particularlythrough Decree 100/2020/ND-CP took effect.
Sharing from personal perspective, he said imposing strict penalties on thosewith alcohol concentration exceeding the permitted level is necessary. However,Vietnam should learn from other countries in order to make the regulationspractical.
Decree 100/2019/ND-CP which took effect on January 1, 2020 legislated finesfrom 6 million to 8 million VND for drivers with alcohol concentration levelbelow or equal to 50mg in 100ml of blood or 0.25mg in 1 litre of breath.
A driver with alcohol concentration level exceeding 0.4mg in 1 litre of breathor 80mg in 100 ml of blood will be given the highest fine of 40 million VND,compared to 18 million VND in the old decree.
Strict regulations on alcohol concentration have brought many positive effectsin reducing traffic accidents and changed the drink driving habit.
However, current legal documents do not have regulations on natural alcohollevel in the blood or breath. Seeking medical professional opinions on bloodand breath alcohol concentrations is expected to help specialised agencies havemore basis to determine proper alcohol concentration limits.
According to the latest statistics of the Traffic Police Department, in thefirst 11 months of 2023, police nationwide cracked down on nearly 700,000 casesof exceeding alcohol concentration limits, accounting for 23% of total trafficviolations.
Each day, more than 2,000 drink driving cases faced punishments.
The number of drink driving cases fined by the police doubled in 2023 comparedto 2022, said the department.
Thanks to that effort, the number of deaths related to accidents caused bydrink driving was also slashed by half./.
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Traffic police check alcohol concentration of a driver in Dak Lak province. (Photo: VNA) 
