“This is excessive. It will be very expensive.” Galician hoteliers protest because the Government wants to lower the alcohol level

Last week, Fernando Grande-Marlaska announced that the Government plans reduce the general blood alcohol level to less than half of the current level. This means that a positive result will be obtained with a lower amount of alcohol. In fact, Pere Navarro, director of the DGT, has admitted that “absolutely nothing will be allowed to be drunk” with this new rate if we are going to take the car.

This The hospitality sector did not like it. Or at least that is what the Galician Confederation of Hospitality and Tourism Businesses (Cehosga) has said: “Obviously, no one can drive drunk, but this is excessive.”

“If people can’t have a beer and drive, I don’t know where we’ll end up”

Interviewed by El Correo GallegoCheché Real, president of Cehosga, has criticized this possible measure as “atrocity” because “it will be very expensive for the hospitality industry”. And he stresses that, if the reform is finally applied, they will appeal the measure by presenting the relevant allegations.

Real argues that this reduced alcohol rate will cause customer demand to dropespecially at night. “If people leaving work can’t even have a beer and then get in the car, I don’t know where we’re going to end up,” he criticises.

In his opinion, this will be particularly hard on establishments outside cities or on the outskirts, which can only be accessed by car. He gives the example that this was already noticeable when the tax was reduced years ago: he had a business in a village in Lugo and “customers stopped coming to dinner.” “With this tax, the outlook is going to be much more difficult,” he says.

Not even a third of beer. At the moment, the maximum permitted alcohol rate is 0.5 grams per litre of alcohol in the blood and 0.25 milligrams of exhaled air. The new rates proposed are 0.2 g/l of alcohol in the blood and 0.10 mg/l of exhaled air.

Both would be even lower than the already reduced rates for novice and professional drivers: 0.3 g/l and 0.15 mg/l respectively. In fact, this general rate now proposed had initially been envisaged only for these groups.

Applying this new rate would mean the maximum fine (1,000 euros and six points on the licence) with an alcohol level that currently does not give a positive result. And, in turn, a positive result will be obtained by consuming much less alcohol.

The DGT has estimated the possible amountsFor example, a man weighing between 70 and 90 kilos It will give between 0.21 and 0.28 g/l with a third of beera glass of wine or even a small glass of vermouth. But a woman weighing between 50 and 70 kilos would have a much higher rate: between 0.34 and 0.48 g/l of alcohol in the blood. Pere Navarro has admitted that for all intents and purposes it is a “zero tolerance” rate.

One in three fatal accidents involves alcohol. The DGT maintains that this new tax responds to a recommendation from the European Union and that it is an endemic request from road safety associations.

Unfortunately, alcohol remains a recurring cause of fatal accidents: in one third of these accidents, the driver had been drinking. And despite the increasing number of traffic controls, too many positive results are still being detected.

In The latest alcohol and drug control campaign this Augustwith more than 220,000 alcohol tests carried out, a total of 2,156 were positive. 89% were detected in preventive controls, the rest being due to infractions, accidents or symptoms.