Shanghai Cops Catch 1200 Drunk Drivers in 10 Days

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Sina has a great article about the recent crack down on drunk drivers in China after a spate of incidents involving

drunk drivers at the wheel. It’s the hot topic on everyones lips at the restaurant dinner table recently, with restaurants offering breathalyser tests to customers prior to them leaving home, and also a massive boom in the sale of breathalysers on the auction website, taobao.com (only 28 rmb, I’m quite tempted myself  - in the interest of science, I might add.)

The article in question, in translation, in brief:

Last night at 1:10 am, an officer from police squad no 4 pulled over a small black sedan. On seeing the policeman bringing out the breathalysing equipment the driver of the black sedan only opened his window half way and shook his head; “I drank a little beer at sometime around 9pm, but it’s already been hours” it was too late for this driver as his blood alcohol level had already reached 0.51mg/ml putting him over the legal limit. An officer from squad 4 told us that a popular method for drunk drivers is pointing out the time between them drinking and driving, often they try to drive to a secluded area and sleep it off, but we will find them. In 10 days the squad no4 officers from Xu Hui division pulled in 92 drunk drivers, approximately 30% of them were sleeping drunks caught in the early hours asleep in their car.

Several methods to fool the police breathalyser kit have appeared on the internet, including drink two bottles of mineral water in quick succession before driving, and drink soapy water to wash your mouth out prior to a breathalyser test. According to the traffic police responsible for catching drunk drivers, neither of these ‘quick methods to cheat the police’ have worked.

Off duty policemen in Shanghai have also been ordered to turn off their phones to stop drunk drivers from calling their friends in the force to help them with drink drive related issues. Shanghai police are also extending their presence on the street until the early hours of the morning, meaning that drunk drivers really don’t have a place to hide.