On Monday, the 13th of February, the ruling coalition in Latvia reached an agreement to permit handing over cars confiscated from drunk drivers to the needs of the Ukrainian army, said PM Krišjānis Kariņš after a meeting of parties forming the coalition.
The proposal was suggested by the Ministry of Finance, which will also prepare relevant legislative amendments.
As previously reported, November 2022 marked the coming into force of amendments to the Criminal Law, which make drunk driving or giving driving lessons while inebriated a criminal offence. Criminal liability is applied if 1.5 permilles of alcohol are found in the blood. Criminal liability is also applied if a person is caught driving or giving driving lessons while under the effect of narcotic, psychotropic, toxic or other intoxicants.
Drunk drivers may also have their vehicle confiscated if he or she was caught driving their car drunk or under the effect of intoxicants by the police.
In situations when the driven vehicle is owned by another person, a full or partial value of the vehicle is to be enforced from the guilty party.
The aforementioned harsh penalties have helped ensure a positive trend when it comes to reducing the number of road traffic violations. Chief of State Police Armands Ruks said in an interview to LTV programme Rīta panorāma in February that even though drunk drivers are still caught on roads nearly every day, the situation does show signs of improvement.
The chief of police explained that police uncovered 70-80 such violations over the course of a single week last year. In the first weeks of 2023 there have been less than 50 such violations. Ruks did say it is too soon to rush with conclusions about the success of the new penalty system, as the regulations that provide harsher penalties for drunk driving came into force relatively recently.
Also read: Latvian State Police estimate 94% of caught drunk drivers are men