The Archbishop of Santiago de los Caballeros, Freddy Antonio de Jesus Breton, published an editorial in the nationally distributed Catholic weekly “Camino” that he titled “A License to Kill?”. The editorial starkly and fiercely criticizes the yearly decision taken by the Dominican government to remove the limits to drinking hours in the nation’s bars, hotels and restaurants over the Christmas and New Year holidays.
Breton called for the government to revert the decision, and heed recommendations made by the Dominican Society of Orthopedics and Traumatology. The medics have alerted that 24,000 to 28,000 persons are injured each year as the result of traffic accidents and some 3,500 persons die from these accidents, all as the result of alcohol consumption.
The Archbishop says that “towards the end of the year we find many irresponsible persons who think and act as if they had a license to kill.”
In addition to the removal of the restrictions on drinking hours, the prelate also stressed the urgent need to improve obedience of traffic laws along with improved education of highway safety.
Read more in Spanish:
El Nacional
10 December 2018
