Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Drivers age 20-29 have the highest number of people whose licenses were taken away in 2009: 24,858. But drivers over age 50, with nearly 15,000 licenses removed, make up the fastest growing group.
Swiss federal road safety statistics were published Tuesday 23 February and they show a 5 percent increase, to more than 34,000 drivers, in the number of people whose licenses were taken away for speeding. Drivers whose licenses were removed because they were over the alcohol limit, with 0.8 per thousand or more, decreased by 7.8 percent, some 17,000 fewer. The two make up the bulk of cases of the nearly 75,000 licenses removed in Switzerland by police in 2009.
A growing number of people, some 9,000 last year, had their licenses taken away for inattentive driving, generally due to using a cell phone or GPS system.
Road safety test in action
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Fatal road accidents due to driving under the influence of alcohol have dropped 45 percent since the introduction in 2005 of the 0.5 per thousand blood alcohol limit.
Almost 15 percent of all road deaths are still due to drunk driving, and the main offenders are men, the young, and habitual drinkers, according to the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention, BPA, in a campaign coordinated with the cantonal police forces to raise public awareness of the dangers of drunk driving.
Update 16:00 Genthod, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Russian media have been carrying stories about the accident Thursday 19 November in Genthod where a Lambhorgini driven by a 22-year-old Russian crashed into a Golf driven by a 70-year-old German, both resident in the Geneva area. The older man is in serious condition in the hospital. The Russian articles and a flood of comments and e-mail received by GenevaLunch are focusing on the likely names of those involved, with children of politicians and rich businessmen heading the top of the list of suspects. The names are openly published in Russia, with one notable family mentioned in the Guardian Tuesday afternoon.
In Switzerland, the Tribune de Geneve/24Heures published a story Tuesday afternoon saying three of those involved left Geneva Sunday on a private jet, thus avoiding having to give evidence to a Geneva judge. (Ed. note: the story cites “our sources” without details and appeared after Russian media reports).
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Police in Geneva 5 July arrested a man and sent him to prison after a drunk-driving test showed his alcohol level was 3.27 0/00, well over the legal limit of 0.5 grams/litre in Switzerland. He told police he had been at a party and wasn’t under the impression he’d had that much to drink. He was arrested for a similar offense in 2006. He’d been driving from the Rue de Lyon to the Rue de Servette.
Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – If ever there was a time to keep your weight off the gas pedal and to skip that second drink before getting into the car, this is it. Vaud police have begun an intensive two-week campaign to catch drunk drivers and speeders, in part to draw attention to a recent increase in deadly accidents.
