I know I had a good old grump last week about the new laws on drinking, but this led me on to another tack – so let me have another grump about drinking. And before your readers start thinking that I belong to a temperance group, be sure I like a drink, enjoy some great Alentejo red wine and during the winter have been known to down the odd pint of Guinness.
Just today I was in a tasca from 11am until 12.30pm. My friend and I chewed the cud, as we always do on a Wednesday. We put the world to rights – because we grumpy old residents are good at that – and generally watched the world go by.
During that time, the tasca was visited by upwards of 10 men, all of whom were driving commercial vehicles – some larger than others – the vehicles that is, not the drivers! All of them drank a coffee and at least one brandy, bagaço or similar, and one guy drank two imperiais, and a brandy as well as his coffee.
When I went to pay our pitifully small bill for two waters and four coffees I asked the charming lady who owns the tasca about alcohol consumption during the day. Keen to practice her English, she told me that most of the commercial visitors she serves drink at least one and probably two alcoholic drinks when they stop for a coffee.
But she expressed more concern about the number of drivers who visit her establishment for lunch, and who drink wine with their meal and then down a couple of digestifs with their coffee. Good for her bar takings of course, but like me she had other concerns.
Now my grumble and that of my fragrant bar owner is this. Some of these commercial drivers are going to be over the drink-drive limit when they get back into their vehicles. They are putting themselves at risk, but they are also putting me at risk as they are not fit to drive and may involve me or some other innocent party in an accident.
This got me to thinking that there are numerous GNR across the Algarve, stopping drivers on a regular basis to check that paperwork is in order etc. But, in all my time in the Algarve, I have never seen a driver being breathalysed during the day at any of these stops.
Perhaps it is easier just to check paperwork as this involves less work for the police than having to check, register and, in some instances, take additional action if a driver is over the limit prescribed by law. Or is it that the drivers I am speaking of feel confident that they will not be stopped by the long arm of the law, as the GNR’s presence will be reduced as some of their number will be having a lunch break?
Whilst I am good at having a grump, I am not so good at putting forward a solution to this issue – except perhaps no drinking and driving at all.
But then that would probably contravene some human right or other – oh dear I feel another grump coming on.
