The law in the Czech Republic about drinking alcohol and driving is strict. Zero tolerance. No amount of alcohol can be in the blood stream. None. Therefore one can not drink anything at all, if they are about to drive.
I noted that all my friends, that had a car(not many had a car at all, I might add) in Prague were extremely prudent when it came to drinking alcohol and combining it with driving. If one of them were driving, they either had a non-alcoholic beer or had water or soda. I never saw any of my friends drink an alcoholic drink if they were driving that day or were suppose to drive home. They were 'religious' about it and took the law very seriously.
In contrast, in the US, while all 50 states and the District of Columbia have per se laws defining it as a crime to drive with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) at or above a proscribed level, currently 0.08 percent (0.08 g alcohol per 100 ml blood), which equates to having more than one alcoholic drink per hour(depending on the persons weight). People here can and DO, routinely drive after drinking one beer or glass of wine and/or perhaps two.
...and Yes, it is true that there are abusers in both countries, but in the Czech Republic, I have seen strong evidence of people obeying the Zero tolerance blood alcohol laws, whereas in the US, it is very common for people, me included, to have at least one drink and then drive, knowing that they ( or I ) would not be impaired with taking only one drink.
This is certainly a major difference between here and there.
No comments:
Post a Comment