Two drivers probed in drug-driving crackdown

Police are investigating two drivers suspected to have been driving under the influence of drugs in a special inspection campaign that was launched in Zhongshan city from Monday morning, just past midnight.

Wang Junke, director of the anti-drug bureau of the Guangdong provincial department of public security, said the special campaign has investigated more than 300 vehicles and about 350 drivers.

"Zhongshan, located in the middle of the Pearl River delta, has been selected as a pilot city to investigate drug driving in the southern province," Wang told a press conference in the Guangdong provincial capital on Monday.

Such investigations that aim to identify drivers under the influence of drugs in an attempt to fight drug addiction and reduce traffic accidents will take place in more Guangdong cities this year, Wang said.

Those who are convicted of driving under the influence of drugs will lose their driving licenses and be subject to other punishments, according to the relevant regulations and rules, Wang said.

The special campaign was launched after a growing number of traffic accident involving drug-impaired drivers were reported in the province, which borders the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, in the past months.

Wang said more than 18,000 of 72,000 drug-impaired drivers previously caught in Guangdong have had their driving licenses canceled.