Alcohol, Drugs & Fitness to Drive

Rule of thumb: the body breaks down 0.1‰ per hour. A level of 1.0‰ takes roughly 10 hours to clear completely.

Nothing speeds this up — not sleep, not coffee, not a walk, not exercise. Time is the only cure.

0.3‰ is already treated as "unfit to drive" if you show any sign of driving impairment or cause an incident — even though it's below the general legal threshold.

0.0‰ is an absolute requirement (no exceptions) for drivers under 21 and for anyone in their probationary period.

What makes alcohol's effect worse: drinking on an empty stomach, combining it with sleeping pills/painkillers/sedatives, or downing drinks quickly. Even small amounts cause delayed reaction time and impair hearing, vision, and spatial judgement.

Drugs (hashish, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, amphetamines, crystal meth, LSD) can cause unfitness to drive from a single use.

Unlike alcohol, cannabis is not broken down at a steady rate — it stays detectable in urine for 10 days to 3 months.

Effects can include hallucinations, distorted perception, overestimating your own ability, sudden fatigue, and misjudged speed/distance.

Medications can impair fitness to drive just like alcohol or drugs — always check the package leaflet.

Consequences of driving under drugs: licence confiscation or driving ban, fine and/or imprisonment, and a mandatory medical-psychological exam. A drug-dependent person is only considered fit to drive again after proving at least a year drug-free with low relapse risk.

• Fatigue is one of the most common accident causes — it leads to microsleep.
• In hot weather: plan regular breaks and drink enough water.
• Don't drive if experiencing nausea, dizziness, or fever.

Offences scored with 2 points in the central register are cleared after 5 years.