For a number of years Slovenia's traffic police have mainly used BMW motorcycles. These were joined today (8 November 2007) by 35 new Honda NT 700 VA DEAUVILLE (ABS) motorcycles, which were formally handed over at the Logistics Office of the General Police Directorate.

These 35 new motorcycles join the pool of 184 motorcycles at traffic police stations around Slovenia, which more than 300 officers are trained to ride.

The new machines were formally handed over to the officers by Director-General Jože Romšek and members of his staff. Mr Romšek explained that he was very satisfied with the new acquisition and the addition of 35 motorcycles to the police vehicle pool: "The new motorcycles will serve a number of purposes and will be used above all in town centres and on national roads." He then wished the police officers happy and safe riding and success in their work.

Police Director-General Jože Romšek told journalists that he himself is a motorcyclists and that next year he will join police officers on a training ride and thus try out one of the new motorcycles for himself. In the photograph: Jože Romšek and Robert Sušanj.

The new Honda Deauville NT 700 (ABS) motorcycles are in the white-and-blue livery of the police and are fitted with police equipment including a siren and flashing lights. The cost of each motorcycle (including VAT) was EUR 10,920. The Honda Deauville NT 700 (ABS) has a 680.2 ccm engine producing 48.3 kW of power (8000 rpm).

According to Robert Sušanj, the head of the Traffic Police Department of the Uniformed Police Directorate at the General Police Directorate, motorcycles are the traffic officer's principal tool and at the same time a mobile office: "Traffic officers spend all of their working hours on motorcycles and logically they must be safe and reliable. As well as riding the motorcycle, which is demanding enough in itself, the traffic police officer has to observe his surroundings, identify violations, respond to them and take action, and all this requires additional knowledge and experience. The officer has to do his job in all weather conditions - rain or shine, fog, heat, frost, etc.But a motorcycle has no roof and no air conditioning like other vehicles." Mr Sušanj added that unfortunately we sometimes fail to give enough credit to these officers and forget that they are on the road, performing their duty conscientiously, 24 hours a day, in order to keep the roads safe for other road users - for us.

Mr Romšek added that the Police are aiming to further increase the presence of officers on the roads, while in connection with this weekend's St Martin's Day celebrations he expressed his concern at the statistics that show that there are too many drivers under the influence of alcohol on the roads. "Up to the end of September alone we identified almost 21,000 road users under the influence of alcohol.Of these, 4,333 had a blood alcohol level of over 1.5 per mille, to use the old unit." He added that both in November, before St Martin's Day, and in December, the police would further intensify their activities. He also took the opportunity to advise all road users to observe the orders of police officers.

Police measures in the sphere of road policing up to 30 September 2007

Police officers:

• identified 390,584 (385,336) violations of road traffic regulations, which is 1% more than last year, and issued 91,546 (97,570) warnings, which is 6% less than last year,
• ordered 286,830 (225,245) breath analysis tests, which is 27% more than last year, of which 20,773 (18,668) were positive, which is an increase of 11%,
• ordered 457 (424) ethylometer tests, where 36 (42) were positive in the case of road accidents, 116 (146) were positive in the case of road traffic offences, 9 (10) were negative in the case of road accidents, 4 (4) were negative in the case of road traffic offences, 14 (13) people refused them in the case of road accidents and 188 (178) people refused them in the case of road traffic offences,
• ordered 1,924 (1,779) analyses (alcohol), of which 636 (724) or 12% fewer were positive,
• 4,433 (3,979) road traffic offenders had a blood alcohol level of more than 1.5 g/kg, which is an increase of 11%,
• 1,719 (1,783) causers of road accidents had a blood alcohol level of more than 1.1 g/kg,
• ordered 362 (378) extraordinary technical inspections,
• temporarily suspended 16,472 (14,585) driving licences,
• impounded 113 (41) motorcycles or mopeds,
• brought 160 (239) people before a judge
• ordered 1,356 (1,225) drug tests, or 11% more than in the same period in 2006, where 76 (73) were positive in the case of road accidents, 155 (134) were positive in the case of road traffic offences, 145 (191) were negative in the case of road accidents, 12 (15) were negative in the case of road traffic offences, 34 (48) people refused the test in the case of road accidents and 797 (699) people refused the test in the case of road traffic offences.