Mallika Dureja
This year, Latvia began seizing vehicles from inebriated drivers, and when hundreds of vehicles began to overflow impound lots, the country decided to send them to Ukrainian military and hospitals.
On Wednesday, seven automobiles were driven in a snowstorm onto a trailer and out of a state impound lot, bound for Ukraine.
In the 1,9 million-person Baltic nation, 200 automobiles were seized in two months from drivers with blood alcohol levels exceeding 0.15 percent.
Reinis Poznaks, founder of the non-profit organisation Twitter Convoy, which has been tasked by the government to deliver the vehicles to Ukraine, remarked, “It’s actually quite frightening when you consider how many cars are being driven by intoxicated drivers.”
Poznaks stated that the state’s promise to provide him with two dozen confiscated vehicles per week for shipment to Ukraine will try the limits of his largely volunteer operation.
“No one anticipated that so many vehicles would be driven inebriated that they would not be able to sell them as quickly as people are drinking. Therefore, I came up with the notion of sending them to Ukraine “Poznaks said.
When he discovered a Russian flag pinned to one of the confiscated vehicles, left by its owner, he chuckled.
Also read: Russia has resources for 2 more years to fight Ukraine: Lithuania
Twitter Convoy has already despatched approximately 1,200 vehicles after requesting donations via Twitter days after Russia’s invasion began on February 24, 2014. It raised 2 million euros ($2.1 million) in 2022 for the purchase of vehicles, renovations, and logistics.
Finance Minister Arvils Aseradens of Latvia stated that the government was inspired by the success of the NGO to abandon plans to auction the vehicles. “We said, ‘Okay, you can take those cars,’ and (Poznak) said, ‘That’s great!'”
We are willing to do virtually anything to assist Ukrainians.
On Wednesday, four officers shut down a Riga road for a half-hour to test every driver for alcohol, but none were found to be intoxicated.
