Two inebriated motorists banned from driving

Two motorists were driving with alcohol in their blood at the weekend. They’ve now had their driver’s licences suspended.

At 10.30 p.m. on Saturday evening, a police patrol on the Rothusstrasse in Hünenberg checked a motorist. As he was showing indications of alcohol consumption, the emergency services carried out a breathalyser test. This gave a positive reading of 0.84 mg/l (approx. 1.64 promille in the old system), according to the Zug police. The driver's licence of the 36-year-old man was confiscated on the spot, and forwarded to the administrative authority (Road Traffic Office/Strassenerkehrsamt).

A short time later, shortly before midnight, another driver was noticed by a patrol in the "Chämleten" area of the municipality of Hünenberg. During the subsequent check, the emergency services again detected symptoms of alcohol. The breathalyser test showed a value of 0.67 mg/l (approx. 1.34 promille) in the 44-year-old. This driver also had to surrender his driver's licence on the spot.

The blood alcohol limit for drivers in Switzerland is 0.5% - which translates to 0.25 milligrams per litre of breath. Any driver with at least 0.8% of alcohol in their blood, or 0.4 mg per litre of breath, can expect a ban and a heftier criminal sanction. Blood tests will only be necessary in the future if the driver is suspected of having taken narcotics, is on certain types of medication or has a respiratory illness.