RIGA - Nearly 100 drivers were detained in the first three days of a campaign to enforce new legislation designed to curb drunk driving and driving without a license.
Nearly 50 cars were impounded, and 71 of the drivers stopped now face charges of drunk driving. Most of the incidents occurred in the capital.
One man has already been sentenced to 10 days in jail as a result of the strict legislation. Pulled over in the city of Cesis, the man had a blood-alcohol level of 0.24 (a level of 0.30 can lead to unconsciousness). The driver will reportedly also have his license suspended for two years, and faces a fine of 500 lats (720 euros).
The arrested 20-year-old reportedly told the presiding judge that he would lose his job and promised never to drive again, but to no avail.
The campaign stems from new amendments to the state's Criminal Law, which went into effect Oct. 14. The changes give law enforcement the right to seize and impound cars of drunk drivers and those driving without a license.
A driver with a blood alcohol level of 0.1 or above faces arrest, imprisonment and a fine.
The law allows for maximum penalties of up to two years in prison, the seizure of the car, and a fine of up to 50 months' minimum wages.
The threshold is also quite low.
"The first [violations] showed that these [new fines] were a step in the right direction, and that lawmakers have to work to make the punishments more sever for grossly violating the traffic laws," head of the state's traffic police, Edmunds Zivtins, told the Baltic News Service.
The state has run various campaigns to stop drunk driving over the years but has only recently adopted stringent legislation against the dangerous behavior.
The new amendments were debated last month and only accepted at the beginning of October. A few parts of the law still need to be worked out, such as who is authorized to pick up the car from impoundment - the driver or the owner 's in addition to other details.
Some doubt that the car seizures will change the behavior of drunk drivers. In an interview with the Russian language tabloid Vesti Segodnya, General Prosecutor Janis Maizitis said that the amendments were not likely to prevent many from driving under the influence.
Concerns were also raised that a jail sentence of more than three days could possibly result in the driver losing his job. A few days before the law took effect, Zivtins promised that his department would not run out of handcuffs for the high number of anticipated offenders.
Latvia has long had a high rate in road fatalities, although the number has fallen dramatically since the 1990s. Fatalities over the last two years, especially the death of BrainStorm band member "Mumins" in April 2004, have drawn both positive and negative attention to the issue.
Visvaldis Pukite, former head of the traffic police, was forced to step down because of the national problem, and was replaced by Zivtins. A campaign against drunk driving has used highway billboards to inform the public of the dangers of drinking and driving. One says, "Drink and drive!" with a picture of a man in a wheelchair.
