(Left) New Dry Law. More rigour, less violence in traffic. Now there is zero tolerance. /
(Right) Cost of a new helmet: 200 reais [= £65.40 GBP] Cost of your life: incalculable. Imprudence has a high price. Give worth to life. Motorbike. It is necessary to know how to use it.
P.S. In an update to recent post about traffic in Brazil, one of the reasons I've heard recently for the current congestion problems is that at the end of the 90's, when Brazil's economy stabilised it was suddenly possible for more and more folk to be able to afford to buy a car. So with every year there are more and more cars on roads that have not expanded to handle the increased traffic.
Another point about traffic is that every year more people die in Brazil from road traffic accidents than of cancer. There are thousands of deaths a year. We studied a text about transport issues in Brazil in one of our language lessons and apparently lack of respect for pedestrians and for regulations is one factor. Apparently the only way to affect change in attitude here is to: (1) set a law determining the action, (2) set a huge fine for transgression (3) make sure that the authorities enforce the fine (4) education. Flavia gave us the example of a law that was set in Brasilia making it a crime not to stop at a pedestrian crossing while someone is on it (logical you'd think?!) that since being set and enforced has led to a dramatic reduction in deaths at crossings
One factor in road traffic accidents is of course drink driving (though apparently it's not the highest factor). The law has just been changed to zero tolerance for drinking and driving, and posters such as the one above are all over Florianopolis. Flavia is dubious about how well this will work, because one of the issues here is that there are not enough adequate alternatives for people who want to go out at night. to get there and get home. There are no tubes, minimal night buses and taxis are very expensive unless you are splitting the cost. So the only real viable option is to drive and not drink, or go out as a bigger group in one car with an elected non-drinking driver. (I'm thankful here as a Scot (read 'tight'!) - Londoner for a. my bikes , b. the Tube and c. night buses.)
In knowing all of this I was surprised at one of the opening scenes of Brazilian film Vai Que Dá Certo that Ors and I went to the other night (all in Portuguese, no subtitles... we reckon we probably understood about 10% of the dialogue, if that, though got the jist of the film - it was a comedy which probably helped!). The opening scene follows a bunch of late-20's early-30's lads drinking it up all day and night after a casual football game, and then all piling in one car and driving home. And.... and nothing, the film continues. There are no consequences of their drunken driving. If I caught it right there was an off hand one-liner between two characters about one of them not driving (this one is so paralytic at this point he is sprawled on the bonnet of the car) but basically there is no consequence. To my British eyes this seems strange. I would only expect a director to script in a drink driving scence if it was going to significantly affect the plot in some way. The fact that here is doesn't is perhaps an indication of how familiar and perhaps accepted drink driving still might be in Brazil.
I remember hearing rumour of a zero-tolerance drink driving law being set in the UK. I wonder will it eventually come to pass too?
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