Nine Latvian students sent to hospital for heavy drinking on Knowledge Day

  • 2006-09-05
  • By TBT staff
Some students have found their heavy drinking and partying on Sept. 1, Knowledge Day in celebration of the new school year, has come with a price.

A total of 149 people were punished for various offenses on Sept. 1, according to National Police. Of 15 offenders detained on Sept. 1, six were under age. A total of nine teenagers were admitted to hospitals in Riga. Blood alcohol tests of two patients, 17 and 14, came back 2.3 per milliliter.

One patient was six. One, 15, was unable to provide his name or address.
Riga Municipal Police spokeswoman Inese Timane said that the municipal police had detained 15 offenders on Sept. 1, including five minors, and imposed fines on 154 people, including 58 underage people.

The municipal police also drew up 98 protocols of administrative offenses, including for 32 minors. "In most cases protocols were made about drinking in public, smoking by minors and sale of alcohol to minors," said Timane.

In order to prevent road accidents near schools, the police stepped up patrols around education establishments. Nearly 200 officers of the National Police and the Riga Municipal Police were patrolling around schools in the Latvian capital.