Drink drivers to have cars confiscated in Poland as new law enters force

People caught drink driving in Poland can now have their cars confiscated by the state under a new law that came into force yesterday.

However, some experts have questioned the constitutionality of the law, which was proposed and approved under the previous government. The new government, which has been in power since December, says it will amend the legislation to ensure it complies with the constitution.

Cars will be confiscated from drink drivers and transferred to state ownership under new rules approved by parliament.

If a drink driver’s car is destroyed in an accident, or if it does not belong to them, they will pay a fine equivalent to its value https://t.co/95AR9WZyrH

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) November 24, 2022

Under the new rules, a driver with at least 0.05% of alcohol in their blood who has caused an accident or any driver who is caught driving with at least 0.15% of alcohol in their blood, regardless of whether they caused an accident, will lose their vehicle. Poland’s drink-driving limit is 0.02% of alcohol in the blood

At 2 a.m. on Thursday, just two hours after the law came into force, the police caught the first driver eligible for confiscation under new rules.

A driver was stopped in the Silesia province after he was seen to be unable to drive in a straight line. He was found to have 0.2% of alcohol in his blood, reported the Rzeczpospolita daily. At 6 a.m. another driver was found to have the same reading after causing a crash that resulted in four people being hospitalised.

Kolejna konfiskata auta za alkohol? Kierowca wydmuchał 3,2 promila
Więcej: https://t.co/CygUc5MnQR

— Radio ZET NEWS (@RadioZET_NEWS) March 15, 2024

However, the justice ministry believes that compulsory confiscation from all drivers with more than 0.15% alcohol in their blood could prove unconstitutional and expose the state treasury to liability.

The ministry has announced work to amend the law to abolish the compulsory confiscation of cars in every case, allowing a court to decide on each case separately.

The court will be able to order confiscation or other penalties, such as a fine amounting to the value of the car, said the deputy justice minister Arkadiusz Myrcha in an interview with a broadcaster Radio Zet on Wednesday.

Pijanych kierowców czeka konfiskata auta. Adam Bodnar: absolutnie to nie są martwe przepisy https://t.co/fA3kTAf62K

— Onet Wiadomości (@OnetWiadomosci) March 14, 2024

“All those who lose their vehicle between 14 March and the entry into force of the amended law and their cases have not been validly concluded will be subject to the law more favourable to them,” Mrycha said, adding that he envisages the new amended law to be in place before summer.

Justice minister Adam Bodnar stressed that the planned changes to the law do not mean that the legislation in force today is a dead letter. “The law is in force and will be valid, but there are doubts in specific cases,” said Bodnar.

“The amendment we have announced is intended to address the questionable issues. The amendment is intended to make it so that in certain situations it will not be the court’s obligation, but its right to confiscate the car.”

MPs from The Left have called for tougher rules on illegal street racing, saying police currently do not have sufficient legal tools.

It comes after a crash on Saturday in which four men died after their car was filmed driving at dangerously high speeds https://t.co/OSRvyPAtVA

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) July 18, 2023

Poland has one of the EU’s strictest drink-drive limits of 0.02% of alcohol in the blood, with most countries allowing up to 0.05%. Four countries – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia – have an absolute ban on alcohol for drivers.

Police data show that the number of accidents in Poland involving road users (drivers, cyclists and pedestrians) under the influence of alcohol, as well as the number of road accidents overall, has been gradually decreasing in recent years.

In 2022, the number of such incidents (2,248) was half what it had been a decade earlier (4,467), In 2022, 268 people were killed in sush incidents (14.1% of total road fatalities) and 2,567 people were injured (10.4% of the total number of injured), according to police data.

In recent years, Polish society has been shaken by high-profile accidents involving drink drivers, which have led to calls for tougher laws, including a proposal to make drink drivers pay compensation to families of victims.

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