With Phnom Penh police set to begin enforcing speeding and drunken driving laws Friday, fines have been established, an NGO official said Wednesday.
Meas Chandy, road safety project coordinator for Handicap International Belgium, said an escalating rate of fines will be imposed on drivers depending on how much faster than the applicable speed limit they travel .
According to Mr Chandy, motorbike drivers traveling faster than 30 km per hour face fines ranging from 3,000 riel for driving 1 to 19 km per hour over the speed limit to 6,000 riel for traveling more than 40 km per hour over the speed limit. Cars, he said, must adhere to a 40-km-per-hour speed limit and will be subject to fines of between 5,000 and 12,000 riel, while buses and other large vehicles could face fines between 10,000 and 25,000 riel for exceeding that same limit.
Drivers who are found by the Breathalyzer to have 0.25 to 0.39 mg of alcohol per liter of breath face fines of 6,000 riel for a motorbike, 12,000 riel for a car or 25,000 riel for a bigger vehicle, Mr Chandy said. Registering more than 0.4 mg of alcohol subjects a driver to a fine of between 25,000 and 1 million riel and possible jail time, he said.
“According to statistics, many traffic accidents are caused by drunk driving or speeding,” he said.
Municipal police chief Him Yan confirmed the fines, adding that vehicles will also be confiscated from drivers found to have a reading of 0.25 mg or higher, while drivers with more than 0.4 who cause an accident could face as much as three years in jail.
He said enforcing the laws will require a larger police force, and that more police will now start working at night.
Police officials said last week that the initial speeding and drunken driving checkpoints will be on Monivong, Norodom and Mao Tse Tung boulevards, as police do not have enough laser guns for measuring speed or breath-analyzing devices to cover the entire city yet.
