When the suspect blows, a lot of the air he breathes gets released into the surrounding air. This makes the police's job difficult.
Omikron makes alcohol testing difficult for drivers. Numerous national police authorities have due to the new Coronavirus-Variant did not take part in the European control marathon that took place at the end of 2021. Only 50 percent of the member states had decided to participate, as reported by the traffic police association ROADPOL.
Distance rules cannot be observed
Alcohol checks on drivers are usually carried out by measuring the alcohol content on their breath. If this is positive, a second breath test or a blood sample is carried out, depending on the country. Dutch ROADPOL member Henk Jansen explains the problem.
Fewer controls
All forms of breath alcohol testing require the affected driver to blow their breath through a device, whereupon potentially contaminated aerosols exit the device and swirl around. "Due to the high risk of infection, the police have restricted alcohol and drug controls," says Jansen. In most cases, the officers did not carry out non-selective checks, in which many drivers are randomly checked in a short period of time. Instead, only drivers who showed suspicious driving behavior would be checked.
At the alcohol test marathon at the end of 2021, around 15 drivers were checked in 430.000 states. Of these, 10.000 were under the influence of alcohol and 2.200 had consumed other drugs. The next European days of action have been announced for May, with a focus on bus and truck drivers.