Bank holidays continue to see large numbers of drunk driver related acciden ts

Millions of Poles will be heading off for the long weekend today. It can be expected that a considerable number of them will spend time unwinding by dr inking alcohol and then driving off. Drunk drivers can be sentenced to two years imprisonment, as in Poland drunk driving is now regarded as a criminal offense. "The change in the status of drunk drivers is proving effective. L ast year the number of cases dropped by 40,000," said Marek Jewula from the Warsaw Police Headquarters. However Wojciech Dziuban from the Justice Minis try has a different opinion. "In 2001 courts dealt with 100,000 drunk drive rs, passing 60.000 sentences, which is still a very high number. The changes to law have failed to act as a deterrent". Drivers do not seem to worry abo ut their driving license being revoked, as quite often they will continue to drive without a license. The long bank holiday will bring further tragedies, which more often end with people suffering terrible life-long disabilities than with deaths. If driving take care, you might be sober, but the other d river may not be (Zycie, p. 1) A.Z.