Cars seized from drunk drivers in Latvia are sent to Ukraine to help the war.
With one of Europe’s highest drunk driving rates, Latvian politicians amended the law last year so that drivers exceeding more than three times the legal alcohol limit can be confiscated and sold. Instead of letting seized car warehouses turn into huge cemeteries, they turned to Twitter Convoy, an NGO that called for vehicle donations following Russia’s invasion, Metro reports.
Founder Reinis Poznaks said: “No one expected people to drive so many vehicles while intoxicated that they could not sell them as quickly as people drank. That’s why I devised the idea – to send them to Ukraine.”
He laughed when he found a Russian flag trapped in one of the seized vehicles, left there by his owner. Latvian legislators pledged to give Twitter Convoy 24 cars a week, and the first batch of 8 left the capital Riga on Wednesday. After crossing the border, they are handed over to the Ukrainian army and hospitals.
More than 4,000 drivers were detected last year on Latvian roads with speed limit overruns, according to police, and were involved in nearly 1,000 accidents in 2022.
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