Drink, drive and death.

 

Last year, more than 36.000 people lost their lives in car traffic-related accidents in Brazil. The number by itself shocks, but the reason why those people died is even worse. Studies around the globe shows that even at small doses, alcohol may affect drivers’ efficiency by decreasing their perception and increasing considerably the risk of lethal accidents. For this reason, the Brazilian Government has recently published the Federal Law no. 11705/08, which does not allow drinking and driving and establishes stronger penalties, leading to cases of imprisonment. Overall, the society should be in favor of this harsh, but necessary law because it can decrease the number of car accidents, it can save lives and it can reduce the spending of public money related to car accidents.

 

 First, this law can reduce the number of car accidents, since it prohibits drinking and driving, the most relevant cause of car accidents. Once the law establishes a range of severe penalties, including imprisonment, for whoever is driving under alcohol effects, it forces drivers avoid drinking before driving, which in turn prevents many car accidents. For example, after this law has come into force, the consumption of alcohol has been reduced significantly and as a result the number of car accidents decreased around 57%. In other words, when the law coerces drivers not to drink, it creates a safely drive environment, which decreases the risks of car accidents.

 

Second, this law can save lives by not allowing drunk drivers. Frightened by the civil and criminal penalties for drunk driving, conductors will respect the message it brings: drinking and driving is considered extremely unsafe. When drives get conscious of that, many lives will be saved. It has been proven that 44% percent of persons who died presented some percentage of alcohol in their blood. Such results give the idea that in some way alcohol is closed linked to accidents. For this reason, when forcing people to consider not drinking and driving, the number of deaths will decrease. To have an idea, the number of deaths related to car accidents decreased from 277 cases a day, last year, to 156 victims per day, this year. The drop off drunk drivers is directly related to the reduction of deaths in car accidents.

 

Third, this law can prevent the Government of spending public money on medical services. According to the Brazilian Medical Association, the State expends 25 billion Reais to help out car-crash victims. After the law, the State could save up to 11 million Reais in its budget over the past three months. From the economic standpoint, the law is excellent because the Government can save up the money from the taxpayers wasted in medical service.

 

The government worked in the right path when they value life as being more important and relevant in comparison to a small group of people who insists on drinking beverages before driving, arguing that their acts are not dangerous. The right to drink remains, but not when it is related to driving because the results are much clear: more than 36.000 people died last year from car accidents. Understanding that the Federal Law n. 11705/08 is a question of saving lives and public money will make easier for anybody to give up drinking and driving.