Mateusz S. (centre) was reportedly so drunk he could not speak to officers after the crash which killed six on Wednesday: photo - PAP/Marcin Bielecki
A statement released by Prime Minister Donald Tusk's office has confirmed that during a meeting on Thursday, “ministers presented the prime minister with solutions that they are working on, as well as data and statistics connected with the problem of driving under the influence of alcohol.
“A package of proposals is being prepared which will enable the scale of the problem to be reduced," the statement says.
The proposals will be presented at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday 7 January.
The driver who caused Wednesday's deaths in Kamien Pomorski, north west Poland, was charged on Thursday and faces a sentence of up to 15 years behind bars.
Polish media is awash with reports of the horrific accident, when Mateusz S. (full name withheld under Polish privacy) killed six people after his BMW suddenly veered off the road.
Two victims remain in hospital, one in critical condition.
Marcin Mastalerek, an MP for the opposition Law and Justice party (PiS) said prior to the prime minister's meeting that Donald Tusk's Tusk's Civic Platform had dismissed draft legislation in 2013 that would have stiffened penalties for drunken drivers.
The incident has mobilised all political parties into putting forward their own proposals.
The right-wing splinter group United Poland, as well as the Democratic Left Alliance, have both come out in force to tighten restrictions on drunk drivers.
United Poland spokesman Patryk Jaki told journalists that anyone caught driving under the influence should be jailed for 30 days, and anyone caught with over 1.5 per mil alcohol should pay a fine to the tune of the vehicle’s value.
“We propose that people who get their licence back after being caught drunk driving have a special mechanism installed in their vehicles which will not let them turn the engine on before taking a sobriety test,” Jaki said, adding that “the Polish state should install such apparatus at the cost of the offender.”
A zero-tolerance policy has also been advocated by the Democratic Left Alliance, which apart from breathalisers believes that drivers caught under the influence should undertake therapy, among other things.
“Every driver which has been caught drunk driving should also have a red leaf displayed in the window to warn other drivers of their offence, as well as a harder test to regain their licence after losing it,” the party’s Secretary General, Krzysztof Gawkowski said.
However, not all MPs are for changing the law outright. Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska from the ruling Civic Platform believes that the law does not need to be changed, just properly enforced.
“Anyone who gets behind the steering wheel after drinking alcohol won’t necessarily cause an accident but should count on having his or her driving licence revoked if caught by the police,” she said.
Kidawa-Blonska also asked “how can it be that a sober passenger gets in a car with a drunk driver and allows this to happen? Why don’t [Poles] react? If we don’t react then we are co-responsible for what may happen and the tragedies that take place on Polish roads.”
Asked whether passengers should be coresponsible for an accident should they allow someone who is drunk to drive, the Civic Platform MP said that “there is room for discussion.”
Meanwhile, the public prosecutor's office in Szczecin, northern Poland is considering whether to keep Mateusz S. under arrest for a three-month period, while the case against him is prepared.
Interior Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz, who participated in Thursday's meeting with the prime minister, said that the root of the problem is that drink driving is still "socially acceptable".
Poland has some of the most unsafe roads in the EU. In 2011, 4,200 died in traffic accidents, with the number falling to 3,500 in 2012: an improvement, but with a road mortality rate of 110 deaths per million citizens, this is still almost double the EU average of 60.
The Polish government announced last summer that it aims to cut the number of deaths on the roads by up to 40 percent by 2020.
Polish police say that reduced numbers of deaths on the road last year shows that some improvment has been made.
“In spite of an increase in the number of checks on drivers, police are finding less drunk drivers,” Inspector Mariusz Sokolowski has claimed.
In 2013, 162,000 Polish drivers were arrested for being under the influence of alcohol. (nh/pg/jb)
Source: PAP/IAR