Okinawa Prefectural Police Traffic Planning Division has announced that a total of 5,491 traffic accidents occurred in Okinawa in 2016. 109 of the accidents were related to consumption of alcohol accounting for 1.99% of all accidents in the prefecture.

The result is again the worst in the nation and the 27th consecutive year since 1990 that Okinawa has held the dubious top spot in the police statistics.

The number of people arrested for driving under the influence was 1,856 that is 224 more than in 2015 when there were 1,632 cases of DUI. It also is the largest number in Japan in absolute terms for the second year in a row.

1.3 persons per 1,000 was arrested for DUI, which is about 6.4 times the national average.

According to police, 13 of 38 cases of traffic deaths in 2016 were related to drunk driving, the worst in the nation for the 4th consecutive year.

When police asked the arrested 1,845 people for a reason for their driving under the influence, 599 of them answered, “I didn’t think that I would be arrested.”

The head of the Traffic Planning Division said, “The more we strengthen the crackdown, the more people are arrested. Most of them say that they drove under the influence because they did not expect that they would be caught and arrested. Driving under the influence of alcohol is illegal, and one must not drive after drinking any amount of alcohol.”

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