HSS member of parliament Josip Vresk told a news conference on Friday that his party would insist that the provision of allowing drivers to have 0.5 per mille of alcohol in blood be reinstated and that the deadline for confiscation of a driver's licence by the police be cut from 30 days, (as envisaged by the law which took effect on 20 August) to five days during which the police can press charges against the driver due to his/her traffic offence.
Another HSS deputy to parliament, Bozidar Pankretic, said the HSS did not advocate that drunken drivers should be allowed to drive but this party held that a glass of wine did not affect drivers' ability.
Pankretic went on to say that the HSS supported associations of wine producers and restaurant owners in their vociferous protest against the new law on traffic safety.
HSS MP Zdenko Haramija told the conference that traffic accidents were not caused only by alcohol but some causes could be ascribed to poor conditions of roads, old cars, a lack of experience of young drivers and narcotics. He added that the new law was based on the facts covering the period from 1996 to 2003, and that it was evident that with the opening of new roads and a higher number of police patrols a number of traffic accidents had recently decreased.