New Year’s Eve Incidents: Injuries From Fireworks & Intoxication

  • 4 Jan 2018 12:11 AM
New Year’s Eve Incidents: Injuries From Fireworks & Intoxication
Police were mainly called to incidents connected to fireworks and intoxication on New Year’s Eve. The police started 15 procedures against 12 people on misdemeanour charges. The cases included a firework injuring an 8 year old child on her face, and fire damages to family homes.

Police spokesperson Judit Pap told public television that of the 28 road accidents on New Year’s Eve, one was fatal, when a Budapest tram hit a pedestrian.

The national disaster management authority’s spokesman told MTI that of the 157 emergency calls answered throughout the country on the last night of the year, 14 were about minor fires caused by fireworks.

The ambulance service reported over 3,000 emergency calls, 1,000 of which were called in from Budapest, the communications chief of the service said. Most alerts came between midnight and 4am on Monday morning, Pál Győrfi said in a statement.

Of the calls, 115 incidents were in connection with fireworks causing hand, face and eye injuries. Traffic accidents, scuffles, carbon monoxide poisonings and sicknesses made up the brunt of the calls. Of the nearly 300 intoxications, about 15 involved minors.

Speaking to public television on Monday morning, Pál Golopencza, head practitioner of the ambulance service, said that the service had deployed extra vehicles to deal with the increased demand. All cases were handled on time, he said.

A record low number of patients were brought to detoxification wards in Budapest, public news channel M1 reported. Of a total of around 70 patients, at least two were minors, they said.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.

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