Latvia has started sending cars seized from drunk drivers to Ukraine to support troops or medical services. On Wednesday, the first seven vehicles left a Riga depot bound for Ukraine. With 1.9 million inhabitants, the Latvian authorities withdrew nearly two hundred cars in two months from drivers with blood alcohol levels higher than 0.15%, which during this time have been accumulating in deposits.
"The truth is that it is very scary when you realize the number of cars that circulate with drunk drivers," Reinis Poznaks, founder of the NGO Twitter Convoy, which the Latvian government has commissioned to deliver the vehicles, told Reuters. to Ukraine. The authorities have promised to deliver twenty confiscated cars a month to this organization, which was already engaged in sending cars to the invaded country.
“Nobody expected people to drive drunk so many vehicles; they can't sell them as fast as people drink. That's why I came up with the idea of sending them to Ukraine," Poznaks explained, joking that he found a Russian flag on one of the seized cars.
Twitter Convoy has already shipped some 1,200 vehicles, following a call for financial donations on social media shortly after the Russian invasion began last year. In 2022, the NGO raised 2 million euros that it allocated to the purchase of cars, repairs and logistics.
Latvian Finance Minister Arvils Aseradens said the NGO's work inspired the government to stop auctioning seized vehicles. “We are ready to do almost anything to support the Ukrainians,” Aseradens said.
Last year, the Latvian police identified 4,300 drivers with high blood alcohol levels, who were involved in a thousand accidents.
