Late in the afternoon on the 13th, Jeju police and autonomous police conduct a joint drunk-driving crackdown across Jeju City. Yonhap News
Police conducted a nationwide crackdown on drunk driving to mark the summer vacation season, catching 320 cases in a single night. Authorities launched the preemptive operation, anticipating that the risk of drunk driving would increase amid greater travel to holiday destinations and more outdoor activity.
The Korean National Police Agency said on the 1st that a drunk driving crackdown conducted nationwide on the night of the 31st of last month resulted in a total of 320 cases, including 185 license revocations, 129 license suspensions, and 6 refusals to take a breathalyzer test.
The crackdown deployed 4,225 personnel, including traffic officers and local police, along with 1,580 patrol cars. Police focused their enforcement on 733 locations with a high likelihood of drunk driving, such as areas near holiday destinations, entertainment districts, and highway interchanges.
To increase the effectiveness of the crackdown, police also carried out mobile “spot-style” checks that changed locations at set intervals. The aim was to move away from fixed-location enforcement, making it harder for drivers to predict checkpoints and thereby heightening the deterrent effect on drunk driving.
A separate crackdown was also conducted in Seoul. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency deployed 171 officers and 92 patrol cars at 34 locations across the city from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. on the 31st of last month to crack down on drunk driving. The operation resulted in a total of 8 cases, including 4 license revocations and 4 license suspensions.
Police plan to continue special crackdowns in preparation for a possible rise in drunk driving during the summer vacation season. The Korean National Police Agency has designated the two-month period from the 1st of last month to the 31st of this month as a special crackdown period for summer vacation drunk driving, conducting nationwide simultaneous crackdowns every Friday along with two or more crackdowns per week by each provincial police agency.
From the 1st to the 30th of last month, a total of 8,742 cases of drunk driving were caught nationwide. License revocations were the most numerous at 5,604 cases, followed by 2,923 license suspensions and 215 refusals to take a breathalyzer test.