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COSTA RICA |
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Drunk Drivers Responsible For Seven Deaths
This Month
December is around the corner and drinking
and driving is a tradition of the holiday
month. Each year many lives are lost on the
country's roads at the hands of drunk
drivers. This year the tradition has begun
early, with seven deaths in November due
traffic accidents involving drunk drivers.
That number represents 24% of the 29 deaths
in traffic accidents for the month to date,
which is higher than the 26 people who died
in traffic accidents during the entire month
of November last year.
To combat the rise the Policía de Tránsito
will have about 800 officers on hand
beginning this weekend conducting road
checks and road blocks in strategic
locations to detect drunk driving.
The increase this month is puzzling, since
the number of deaths from drunk driving has
been on the declince since last December
when the new Ley de Tránsito came in effect,
with harsher sanctions against drunk
drivers, that includes the loss or
suspension of a drivers license to a prison
sentence.
One of the tactics to be used by the
Tránsito is to hold spot checks at any time
of the day and not just the traditional
nighttime activity, according to Germán
Marín, the director of the Policía de
Tránsito.
Marín said that roadside spot checks can be
at any time of the day or night and at any
place. Tránsito, in the past, has usually
held road blocks near concentrations of bars
like in Pavas, Escazú and San Pedro. This
year, however, they can be on any road at
any time, says Marín.
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