Can You Steer After One Beer?

Congress is considering commendable but long-overdue legislation to crack down on drunk drivers, which kills and injures many people every year in Colombia - and frequently go unpunished. And alcohol unquestionably kills and injures many cyclists - Mio newspaper reports that 15 cyclists have died so far this year because of drunk riding, and 43 were injured while pedaling under the influence. Undoubtedly, those numbers are only a fraction of the real toll, and that many more bicyclists have been killed and injured by drunk drivers. (Tragically, drunk drivers often get off with light punishments or none at all, even when they kill people, because of corruption or a general belief that drunkenness is all in good fun, and that whatever one does while drunk is forgiveable.) 

What strikes me as unwise and unrealistic about this law, particularly for cyclists, is the very low threshold to be legally inebriated, which the newspaper says can be violated by drinking only a single beer or a beer and a half. Whether that's a reasonable limit for car drivers, I can't say. But it sure seems low for cyclists, which move much slower than cars and pose much less danger for pedestrians and others. Getting caught could mean a fine of 850,000 pesos, or close to $500.000 - a lot of money for cyclists, who generally are poor or lower middle class. 

In any case, the legislation will have a tough time passing: A congresswoman who advocates for victims of drunk driving recently charged that many of her colleagues don't want to crack down on drunk driving because they do it themselves.   

Cyclists risk their lives in Bogotá's chaotic traffic even when they're not drunk. 

by Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

License to Drive = License to Kill?

Ten years ago, Fabián Rolando Méndez ran over and killed a cyclist.

On April 10 of this year, driving his truck drunk, Mendéz crashed into a woman and three girls, injuring all of them, two of the girls severely.

Today, after two months in prison, Méndez, of the city of Bucaramanga, is back on the street. The lawyer representing the victims said: "Mr. Mendez didn't want to injure, or much less kill, these girls. It was an accident."

And Mendéz did apologize - so, we should feel sorry for him. After all, how many drivers have the bad luck to have four pedestrians and a cyclist get in their way in only a dead - especially when they are driving drunk, and so have limited control. The pedestrians should have known better. 

Sarcasm aside, a judge reduced Mendez's charges, so that he's now out of jail, even though at least two of his maimed victims are still in the hospital, having reconstructive surgery.

Ask yourself: If Mr. Mendez had been using a chainsaw, a gun, a hammer or a knife and gotten drunk and injured four people, after having killed one person the same way, would they have called it an accident? 

What about if Mendez had been a taxi driver or construction worker, instead of a member of a prominent family, and ex-director of the city's Sports and Recreation Institute?

What if Mendéz's victim had been driving an expensive truck himself?

But, when the weapon is a car or truck and the person wielding it is influential and the victims simple pedestrians or cyclists, then killing or maiming are evidently forgiveable mistakes in Colombia.

Méndez's crime moved local residents to march through Bucaramanga demanding justice for the injured woman and girls.  There's even a Facebook group demanding that Mendéz pay for what he did.

This blog written by Mike Ceaser, of Bogota Bike Tours