New Year’s Eve has brought stories of ‘drink driving’ throughout national territory.
Police had a field day in and around Lisbon, Porto and the Algarve in the early hours of this morning, stopping drivers and breathalyzing them.
In Madeira, a CDS councillor well over the alcohol limit, took to the wheel after the famous fireworks display, and ended up running over a pedestrian.
The only positive of this last story showing how little people appear to heed the constant advice from authorities about drink driving, is that the councillor ‘did the right thing’: he stopped, took responsibility for what had happened and has suspended his mandate.
This will not have helped his victim – a 58-year-old man who suffered traumatic injuries to his head, shoulder and arm and was transported to hospital complaining of back pain.
The incident took place in the downtown district of Funchal as weather conditions were deteriorating.
The councillor, named as Leandro Silva, was found to have a blood alcohol level of 1.99 (over three times the legal limit of 0.5).
As for the other ‘disgraces’ of the early hours, they numbered well over 100, and will have left authorities wondering what it is that makes people think they can ‘get away’ with drink driving when it only takes a bit of forward planning to avoid.
SIC Notícias adds that “beyond arrests for excess alcohol, there were also drivers arrested for disobeying authorities – namely by refusing to take a breathalyser test. Other drivers were fined for various driving offences as they tried to avoid, or flee, police road checks”.
Source: LUSA/ SIC
