Guadalajara Expands Zero Tolerance Policy for Drinking and Driving The News
go to original November 2, 2013

Mexico has one of the world's worst road safety records, with more than 80,000 people killed in traffic accidents in the past four years. But authorities say the message is slowly getting through that the country's laws are there to be obeyed. Encouragingly, despite population growth, the number of road deaths is stable, and there is evidence, particularly in Mexico City, that attitudes towards drunk-driving are changing for the better. (The Guardian UK)

New alcohol checkpoints in Guadalajara will begin operating on November 15, a state government spokesman announced recently. Francisco Javier Poe Morales, traffic commissioner for the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area, said that the city operates a zero tolerance policy for drinking and driving.

“Government officials and celebrities will not be exempt from passing through alcohol checkpoints or from being punished if they deserve it,” Poe Morales said. Guadalajara’s alcohol checkpoints will primarily make use of breathalyzers, which are supplemented by blood and urine tests.

Jalisco Forensic Science Institute (IJCF) expert Ricardo Bravo said that breathalyzer tests are widely considered to be trustworthy.

... According to IJCF representative Axel Alejandro Rivera Martínez, 554 people have died in traffic accidents in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area so far this year, of whom approximately 20 percent had alcohol in their blood at the time of the accident.

Read the rest at The News

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