Increase in Women Drunk Drivers Worry Tránsito Officials
Women drunk drivers are also a problem for the Policía de Tránsito (traffic police) as they report that on average three women walk home and fined ¢26.000 colones, resulting from being caught in their net of nightly operatives against drunk driving.

Tránsito` officials say that another two, on average, have a significant blood alcohol content - over the 0.49 limit - but not past the 0.1 that requires Tránsito to confiscate the vehicle.

The numbers come from an analysis of a study by the Dirección General de la Policía de Tránsito during 2006 and 2007 in the San José metropolitan area.

Tránsito official José Solano said that in January 2007 alone, Tránsito stopped 324 drunk drivers, 312 or 96% were men and 12 or 4% women.

The study was done to confirm or discard the perception that drunk driving is increasing, especially in women.

Germán Marín, director of the Policía de Tránsito, said that ten years ago it was unusual to see a woman driving drunk, however, during the last several years there has been a "social and sexual revolution" among women and is now common to find women in bars sharing drinks with friends and then driving home in a state of intoxication.

Director Marín says that they have found that women between 20 and 40 are among the group of women who now go out for a night of drinking, alone or in group, and then get behind the wheel, as this group has a steady employment and there is no distinction in the socio economic status, as they drive drunk in luxury vehicles as lower cost vehicles.

"Ladies night" is a problem for the Tránsito, according to Marín, where women take advantage of the specially priced or free drinks offered by establishment to attract more customers.

Women drunk drivers pose a problem for Tránsito officials who are not accustomed to dealing with drunk women behind the wheel, especially when they become aggressive and belligerent towards the officers.

Marín added that Tránsito officials are constantly facing threats of calling their husbands, significant other or their lawyer by the women, while others weep uncontrollably and beg to be let go and continue driving.

The Tránsito director points to some recent events. April 16, a 16 year old young girl was injured when the vehicle she was a passenger in slammed into a truck in Santa Elena de Heredia. The driver of the vehicle, woman who found with a reading blood alcohol content of 1.32.

A few days earlier, on April 15, a women driving under the effects of alcohol slammed into a light post in barrio San Juan de Limón, injuring four children between the ages of six months and 10 years.

And only last week, a woman drunk driver forced Tránsito officials to block off a woman's vehicle, ensuring she could not continue to drive drunk, when she refused to stop her vehicle, surrender her license and submit to a breathalyzer test, while the woman, in full view of television cameras, insulted the officials and threatened them, while calling her husband, blaming the entire incident on him.