WILLEMSTAD – The Court of First Instance convicted several motorists on Wednesday for driving under the influence of alcohol, with three cases involving alcohol levels ranging from 1.1 to 1.7 per mille. Curaçao’s legal limit is 0.5 per mille, while fines imposed by the court reached as high as XCG 1,600.
One of the cases involved a 32-year-old driver who was stopped in the early morning hours of February 12 after police observed him swerving and repeatedly hitting the curb.
A breath test showed an alcohol level of 1.1 per mille, more than twice the legal limit.
The driver had previously been convicted of a traffic offense and was still within his probationary period. That earlier case included a two-month driving suspension.
The court followed the prosecution’s request and imposed a fine of XCG 1,500 and a three-year probationary period. The defendant told the court that he considered three years excessive but acknowledged that he had been wrong to drive after drinking.
A second case involved a 21-year-old motorist facing three separate offenses: driving under the influence and twice driving without a valid driver’s license.
He was stopped on December 28, 2025, after attending a company party. Police officers smelled alcohol and administered a breath test, which registered 1.5 per mille, three times the permitted level.
Between September and December 2025, he had also been caught driving without a license on two occasions. During one of those stops, he was unable to produce the required vehicle tax documents.
The 21-year-old admitted the offenses and explained that he had been using the vehicle to get to work because his mother, who normally transported him, was away for work. He said public transportation was not always available and that he would otherwise frequently arrive late.
The judge imposed a fine of XCG 700 for drunk driving, XCG 600 for the two instances of driving without a license and XCG 200 for failing to have the required tax documents. His combined fines totaled XCG 1,500.
The highest alcohol reading among the three cases involved a 65-year-old driver who lost control of his vehicle on December 20 and crashed into a guardrail.
According to the police report, he was visibly intoxicated. His breath test registered 1.7 per mille, more than three times the legal limit.
The man told the court that he had been drinking whisky, rum and beer with friends on Oranjestraat earlier that evening. He subsequently returned home and went to bed.
However, after receiving a telephone call from someone he had promised to pick up at Sambil, he got back into his vehicle. He said the combination of alcohol and fatigue caused him to fall asleep behind the wheel and crash.
The public prosecutor warned that his actions could have resulted in a much more serious accident.
The court fined the man XCG 1,600, with 16 days of detention as an alternative if the fine is not paid. His driver's license had already been confiscated for three months following the incident.
The three cases underscore the potential consequences of driving after consuming alcohol, ranging from substantial fines and driving suspensions to the risk of serious traffic accidents.