A DRIVER who was caught driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) in October had a blood alcohol content four times the legal limit for drunk driving, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported over the weekend, citing the city’s traffic police.

The motorist, surnamed Xiong, was stopped by traffic police officers at a regular road inspection in Longhua District on Oct. 24, 2017, and had a breath test, which showed his blood alcohol content had reached 393 mg per 100 ml, well surpassing the legal limit of 80 mg per 100 ml for drunk driving. A blood test later found Xiong’s blood alcohol content was 372.78 mg per 100 ml. Traffic police officers took Xiong to a hospital for treatment as he seemed to be suffering from alcohol poisoning. Xiong’s driver’s license was revoked and he was charged with dangerous driving.

Xiong was the drunkest motorist the city’s traffic police caught last year, the traffic police authority said.

According to the traffic police, 5,505 DUI violations were caught last year, up 41. 3 percent from the previous year, as traffic police stepped up its crack down on drunk driving in the city. Traffic police checked 3,405,513 vehicles in 2017, three times the number of 2016, but the number of DUI violations wasn’t three times that of 2016, said Ma Yubing, a deputy director of the investigation brigade of the city’s traffic police bureau. Ma said the numbers showed that DUI cases were indeed decreasing under the tightened crackdown.

The traffic police authority said the top 10 drunkest motorists caught last year all had blood alcohol contents above three times the legal limit. Seven of them were caught after causing traffic accidents.

Ma said motorists should not assume that they are safe to drive even several hours after drinking.

Another driver, surnamed Chen, was caught for a DUI near the Peking University Shenzhen Hospital on Lianhua Road on March 13 and his blood test showed that his blood alcohol content had reached 343.04 mg per 100 ml. Chen said he had drunk some liquor and several bottles of beer with friends at around 10 p.m. the previous day and waited until 2 a.m. to walk home. However, his blood alcohol content was still shockingly high more than 12 hours after drinking.

Ma said the number of recent DUI cases has been rising. The authority caught 386 DUI drivers between Jan. 1 and Jan. 22. Ma reminded residents not to drive after drinking as the Spring Festival holiday season is approaching. “We will step up our crack down on drunk driving during the Spring Festival transport season. If you don’t want to spend the Lunar New Year behind bars, don’t drive after drinking,” Ma said. (SD News)