Nearly 6,300 drivers in Vietnam were fined for driving under the influence of alcohol after 15 days more severe penalties on this offense are implemented, VnExpress reported, citing a representative of the Traffic Police Department under the Ministry of Public Security.

Of them, 60 car drivers were fined US$1,729 each and 1,270 motorcycles drivers were ticketed with US$346 each, the heaviest penalty for drunk driving (in excess of 0.40 mg of alcohol per liter of breathed air).

A police checks a dirver's alcohol per liter of breathed air. Photo: Ba Do

Many civil servants among the offenders broke the regulation on drunk driving and were strictly handled.

Major General Le Xuan Duc, deputy director of the Traffic Police Department, said that after two weeks, the number of traffic accidents decreased sharply with 322 cases nationwide, killing 249 people and injuring 158 others, representing reductions of 31 cases, 38 deaths and 57 injuries compared to the corresponding period a year earlier.

"There have been no serious alcohol-related accidents across the country over the past two weeks, while in previous years, before the Tet holiday, there were many serious accidents caused with alcoholic beverages," Duc said.

He added that Vietnamese people's sense of compliance with the law on traffic safety has improved.

Dr. Gia Anh, head of the General Planning Department under Hanoi-based Viet Duc Hospital, also said that his hospital usually conducts emergency surgery on 10,000 severe cases, 75% of which are related to traffic accidents and 60% of the patients are with alcohol in blood each year.

However, in the past two weeks, the number of emergency cases at the hospital related to traffic accidents has decreased, the number of patients with alcohol content in blood decreased by 10%.