The law that provides withdrawal of driver’s license to drivers who give a positive result during a breathalyzer test will take effect this Tuesday in the City of Buenos Aires in an attempt to avoid road incidents due to alcohol consumption, which are linked to one of every five fatal accidents that are registered in the district.
The norm will be in charge of the Buenos Aires Secretary of Transport after the sanction of the law in the local Legislature at the end of 2021 to replace the current regulation, which allows offenders to regularize their situation in a short period of time and return to circulation.
To do this, from this Tuesday, drivers who exceed the maximum tolerated blood alcohol limit of 0.5 gr/l will be disqualified from driving a vehicle for a period that will last for a minimum of two months and a maximum that may reach at two years.
The penalty will depend on the dosage that the road control showsaccording to sources from the Buenos Aires government, who detailed that between 0.5 gr/l and 1 gr/l the sanction will be the disqualification of the license for two to four months and the payment of a fine that will range from $7,950 to $53,000.
Then, if the result is 1 gr/l onwards, the disqualification of the license will be applied for a period of four months to two years and an infraction of $15,900 to 106,000, as well as one to 10 days of arrest. .
Within the framework of the Comprehensive Road Coexistence Project, as of tomorrow, driving licenses will be disabled for people who test positive for alcohol https://t.co/G4unTl4urj
— BA Mobility (@bamovilidad) January 31, 2022
“In CABA, you test positive for alcohol and your license is disabled,” he said. Philip Michaelhead of the Buenos Aires Cabinet, who added that “we have to be firm: if tomás can’t drive. It is a great irresponsibility, it is not only a risk for the driver, but also for everyone else”.
For its part, Lucilla Capelli, Undersecretary for Mobility Planning, maintained that “drinking behind the wheel is a serious enough offense due to its consequences: one in five people who lose their lives in a road accident in the City is due to alcohol. This measure is to take care of ourselves and improve coexistence.”
According to official data, in 2021, 338,311 alcohol tests were carried out, of which 1.7% were positive with an average dosage of 0.87 g/l of alcohol.
Positive breathalyzers are led by men at 84.3%, while women represent 15.7%.
From the Buenos Aires government they also clarified that even if the driver has his license registered in a district other than the city of Buenos Aires, the disqualification will occur the same.
In April 2021, the National Road Safety Agency (ANSV), an agency of the Ministry of Transport, presented to the National Congress a draft Zero Alcohol at the Wheel Law for the entire national territory, in a text prepared together with the Ministry of Health, the Secretariat of Comprehensive Policies on Drugs of the Argentine Nation (Ssdronar) and associations of relatives of traffic victims, which was also signed by Deputy Ramiro Gutiérrez and former Deputy Facundo Moyano.
In recent months, institutions such as the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and 53 entities grouped in the Forum of Scientific Societies, Civil Society Organizations and Universities have demonstrated to favor that there is a law of zero alcohol at the wheel in our country.
