Zero tolerance

last updated 8 January 2015

Zagreb, Croatia

Croatia’s new law banning drinking and driving went into force last week to a general wail of dismay. It is now a crime for drivers to have any trace of alcohol in their bloodstreams. The previous limit was 0.05 percent. The stricter standard was proposed after a series of high-profile accidents involving prominent people. In 2002, the mayor of Zagreb was involved in a hit and run while drunk; he was caught later. And last month, the intoxicated governor of Lika-Senj county plowed his official jeep into another car, injuring two people. While members of the general public complain that the new standard is unrealistic, priests in the predominantly Catholic country are lobbying for an exemption. “Consumption of wine is the main component of the Eucharist,” Father Zivko Kustic told Jutarnji List. “Since we serve Mass daily, sometimes up to three times a day, half the clergy is bound to wind up behind bars.”