Bus drivers violate traffic rules

  • 2011-08-10
  • From wire reports

TALLINN - A pan-European campaign took place last month intended to stop drivers from violating driving rules, as Estonian police also took part in this initiative during the last week of July, the Estonian national broadcasting corporation reports.
One intoxicated bus driver and five bus drivers who had violated resting time regulations were caught.
In total, law enforcement officials inspected 141 buses in Estonia, of which two were found to have technical problems and seven lacked properly working rest time recording equipment.

“On the one hand, bus drivers are responsible for the lives of their passengers and, on the other hand, due to the vehicles’ massive size, they pose a greater risk in traffic,” said Riho Tanak, commissioner at the Public Order Police Department, noting that accidents involving passenger buses have occurred this year.

On July 31, passengers of the Ecolines bus traveling on the Tallinn-Riga route noticed that the driver was under the influence of alcohol and ignored driving rules. Travelers asked him to stop the bus; however, he refused to do so, and continued to violate driving principles. To avoid possible trouble, one of passengers exclaimed that she felt sick, and the driver made an emergency stop. The passengers then called the police.

The police officers detected a 1.5 promil alcohol saturation in the driver’s blood. He was arrested for a 30 day term, and lost his driving license for six months as a result of the intoxicated driving.
The Estonian police detained another bus driver, a 45-year-old intoxicated individual, at a checkpoint in Paikuse, in Parnu County, at the end of July.