Untitled, originally uploaded by Antonia Guzmán *.
The 18th is Chilean Independence Day. Unlike in the US, this is a huge holiday in Chile. This year, in fact, it will be celebrated over 5 days. The festivals will be filled with food, music, dance and alcohol.
Recently, Chile passed a zero tolerance for alcohol while driving. Frankly, I think this is great! In Chile, too often, I have watched as people get behind the wheel after having too many drinks. There is the macho attitude that “I can handle my liqueur”. It is deadly.
It is particularly deadly the weekend of the 18th, which I believe, is the holiday with the highest number of alcohol induced automobile fatalities in Chile.
The new law stipulated that anyone caught driving with anything but a 0.0 blood-alcohol level in Chile was officially driving under the influence of alcohol. By mid-August, 8,136 audits were already been made, resulting in 144 people detained for driving under the influence.
It will be interesting to see if this year the death rate declines…
or…
as my pessimistic husband has said, it will increase because people if told they can’t drink reasonably will just drink unreasonably.
No, no “no”.