Latvia aids Ukraine by sending cars taken from drunk drivers

One of the vehicles had a Russian flag on it

The Latvian authorities have decided to help the Ukrainian war effort in a somewhat unusual way – by sending cars confiscated from drunk drivers to Kyiv rather than putting them back on the market through an auction.

According to BBC, the first batch of such vehicles was already dispatched on Wednesday, 8 March, from Riga. They had a combined value of about 18,500 euros and apparently, one of the cars had a Russian flag pinned inside it.

The idea originated in the charity sector

Late last year, Latvia changed the law so that drivers found with three times the legal limit could have their vehicles seized and sold by the government.

Since the beginning of this year, about two hundred vehicles were taken from drivers found with blood alcohol levels over 0.15% in Latvia. That itself represents concerning statistics, since the entire nation has less than 2 million people.

"It's actually very scary when you realise how many cars are driving around with drunk drivers. They can't sell them as fast as people are drinking," said Reinis Poznaks, founder of the NGO known as Twitter Convoy which has been tasked by the government to deliver the vehicles to Ukraine.

That NGO, however, was also the inspiration behind the idea to make the government a vehicle donor to Ukraine. Twitter Convoy was initially gathering cars from private donors, and its success caught the attention of the officials, who have pledged to donate more than two dozen of cars to the charity.

4,300 drivers were found over-the-limit on Latvia's roads last year, according to Reuters. DUI drivers were involved in almost a thousand accidents in 2022 in the Baltic country.