Road-safety summer campaign launched

Road-safety summer campaign launched
© Belga

The summer campaign to raise awareness and curb drunk driving began on Friday, the Vias road-safety institute announced.

Its slogan will be the same as that of the winter campaign, “100% BOB, 100% sober”, a reference to the designation of Bobs, non-imbibing group members designated to drive their companions home.

“A sole glass can be dangerous,” warn campaign actors VSV (Vlaamse Stichting Verkeerskunde), Brussels Mobility, Assuralia (the professional insurers’ union), Belgian Breweries and Vias Institute.

In a European study conducted by Vias, 30% of Belgian respondents admitted to driving after drinking alcohol during the previous one-month period. Only Switzerland and Portugal had higher percentages of drinking drivers.

“Belgian drivers allow themselves to be tempted too often by a glass and then calculate how much more they can drink and remain within the limit,” Vias said.

The campaign insists that a BOB must always be selected beforehand so that people can be sure of returning home safely and that the BOB must remain 100% sober.

To raise awareness on the dangers of driving under the influence of alcohol, a poster campaign will be held in June in Flanders while alcohol tests will be conducted everywhere else in June, July and August. This weekend, federal and local police will organise a new alcohol-free weekend with additional tests on the country’s roads.

Last year, one in four Belgians underwent breathalyser tests. During the last summer edition of the BOB campaign, the police ran 324,000 alcohol tests and found that 2.7% of motorists had drunk too much, which was “the best result ever registered.”

The Brussels Times


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