The government and health and road-safety activists yesterday proposed tougher action against drunk drivers.

They recommended new laws making it an offence for drivers to refuse breath or blood-alcohol tests.

The Office of the Attorney General and road-safety and health groups said drivers suspected of being intoxicated and refusing tests and then charged with obstructing police should be subject to penalties as severe as those for driving under the influence.

It also should be obligatory for all parties involved in motor accidents to undergo breath or blood-alcohol tests.

The recommendations come in response to concern suspected drunk drivers refused to take tests while happily accepting maximum fines for obstructing police - which were Bt1,000 compared with a maximum penalty for driving drunk of Bt4,000 and a year in jail.

The legal maximum blood-alcohol limit in Thailand is 50 milligrams per 100 millilitres.

Attorney-General Pachara Yutithamdamrong told a seminar yesterday his office, the Don't Drive Drunk Foundation, the Thai Health Promotion Foundation and others would seek an increase in penalties for motorists refusing to submit to analysis.

They should be the same as those for drunk driving.

For effective law enforcement, it should be made mandatory for all involved in motor accidents to submit to alcohol tests, he added.

Foundation secretary-general Taejing Siripanich said legal, road-safety and health campaigners would meet in November to finalise recommended amendments to the law. These could be in force within 18 months.

Caretaker Senator and foundation chairman Damrong Puttan hailed the proposed changes.

Making alcohol testing mandatory at road accidents would ensure drunk drivers were punished.

Each year more than 12,000 people die in alcohol-related road accidents costing the country more than Bt100 billion.

Most fatalities are of working age - between 15 and 35, according to director-general at the Attorney-General's technical affairs department Paisit Kanokvechayant.

Its Thon Buri criminal litigation director-general Sermsak Woradit urged law enforcers to get tough on drunk drivers, increase policing and checkpoints and supply them with alcohol-testing devices.

There should be legislation to protect victims of drunk drivers, he added.

President of a network supporting victims of drunk drivers, Pattarapan Krisana, welcomed the proposals and suggested fines should be increased significantly to cover compensation and care for victims.

Anan Paengnoy

The Nation