Finnish police are conducting a country-wide, 24-hour monitoring operation on Tuesday to combat driving under the influence of alcohol. The nationwide series of spot tests is known as Sober Driving Day.
The safety awareness day is based on a Swedish idea, and is held in early June each year in Finland. Police departments are aided in the programme by the Motor Insurers' Centre and the volunteer-based traffic safety group Liikenneturva.
Police say that the number of drink-drivers has remained unchanged in recent years. In Finland, a person driving under the influence is regarded as someone with over 0.5 mg of alcohol per ml of blood in their system. If a driver displays a reading of over 1.2 mg (or per mille, ‰), he or she is guilty of aggravated drunk driving.
"People use more alcohol in the summer and may forget and drinking and driving costs lives," police inspector Heikki Ihalainen says.
Traffic deaths caused by drunk driving have decreased by a third in the past decade, according to Statistics Finland figures. A total of 61 people were killed and nearly 600 were injured (61 severely) in alcohol-related car accidents last year.
A total of 240 people were killed in traffic accidents of any kind in 2016.