Sat, 07 Jun, 2014 12:08:46 AM FTimes-STT Report, June 7  The citizen initiative bill was handed over to the speaker of Parliament Eero Heinäluoma on Friday. Photo – Lehtikuva. A citizen initiatives bill seeking tougher punishment for drunk driving was brought in parliament on Friday.
Although 50,000 signatures are mandatory for forwarding the citizen moves to the legislative process, the initiative has already gained more than 62,000 signatures in favour of stricter penalties for drunk driving and the lowering of the legal limit level of blood alcohol content.
The initiative was taken by Jorma Sonninen, the father whose 11-year-old daughter died in a drunken driving incident at Lapinlahti in May 2012. A 16-year-old sister of the victim was seriously injured in the incident.
Sonninen presented the initiative to the speaker of parliament Eero Heinäluoma.
Sonninen expressed hope that the initiative will result to a meaningful discussions during the debate in parliament and that many legislators will take part in the referral.
It is also Sonninen's wish that the lawmakers will find the will to forward the matter ahead and amend the law.
The initiative proposes among other pertinent issues that death resulting from drunken driving be considered as murder.
There is an attempt already to push the initiative for a preliminary debate in this spring session.
A survey conducted by the news agency STT revealed that most of the political parties are not keen to stricken penalties for drunken driving.
File picture of police checking alcohol of the driver. Photo – Lehtikuva. Furthermore, the suggestion to lower the blood alcohol limit was deemed to lack enough basis.
Earlier, Interior Minister Päivi Räsänen said she sees the possibility of lowering the legal alcohol limit from the current 0.5 to 0.2.
Saying the goal was to introduce a new reliable and accurate breath-testing device to be used by the police, the minister also added that she understood that tougher sentencing for drunk drivers can be regarded as a little bit unjust.
Räsänen pointed out that the minimum sentences should be increased in cases in which drunk drivers actions causes deaths.
The legal system should also evaluate death caused by drunken driving and possibly consider such deaths as murder, according to the interior minister.
Mikko Alatalo, an MP and a member of the parliamentary transport and communication committee, earlier viewed that stricter penalties was not an effective means of reducing deaths on the roads.
The legislature argues that drunk drivers had problems in their lives and would not care much about the consequences of tough sentences.
Four out of five deaths on the roads in the country are a result of driving under the influence of alcohol.
Eero Blåfield from the Association of Finnish lawyers earlier said only 2% of the drivers in the statistics revealed a blood alcohol content of 0.2-0.5.
Although a number of citizen initiative bills have been placed before parliament after collecting more than 50,000 signatures each, all of them have been rejected by the House.
On November 26, 2013, a citizen initiatives bill seeking softened parliamentary measures regarding online copyright charges was placed in parliament for being enacted as a law.
The parliament on May 19, rejected the bill that sought to ban fur farming which activists said was a form of cruelty on wild animals.
The bill was placed before the House after the citizen initiative demanded the ban after collecting more than 70,000 signatures in favour of forbidding such farming.
The fur farming industry owners were accused of cruelty on caged animals to produce fur. The House rejected the bill by 146 votes to 36.
Another proposal for legalization of same-sex marriage was submitted in the parliament in March this year but, was rejected in a narrow margin before placement.
Meanwhile, another citizen initiative seeking referendum on continuation of Finland´s membership in the European Union was also foiled by a lack of support.
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