Holiday Drivers in Portugal Face Record 453 DUI Arrests and 12 Road Deaths

Portugal’s festive season normally means family reunions, roast cod and long motorway drives. This year, however, the early numbers from the joint “Natal e Ano Novo 2025/2026” road-safety blitz point to a darker side of the tradition, with an uptick in fatal crashes and a record wave of drunk-driving arrests.

In Brief

• 12 people lost their lives on national roads between 18 and 25 December.

• Authorities booked 453 drivers for blood-alcohol levels above 1.2 g/l – a criminal offence in Portugal.

• The Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR) accounted for 279 of those arrests; the Polícia de Segurança Pública (PSP) for 174.

• Traffic patrols have already flagged thousands of other violations, from excess speed to mobile-phone use behind the wheel.

• The crackdown continues until 4 January 2026, covering the peak home-return and New Year’s exodus.

A Holiday Road Toll That Keeps Climbing

Motorway service stations from Bragança to Faro were busier than most Algarve beaches last week, yet the human cost has been sobering. The current operation has recorded 12 fatalities, surpassing the nine deaths logged during the first six-day snapshot released earlier in the week. Nine of the victims died on roads policed by the GNR, three under PSP jurisdiction. For comparison, the full 2024 holiday period closed with 11 deaths. While final December figures are still pending, the trend already signals a step backward in Portugal’s decade-long effort to drive annual road deaths below 400.

Why Alcohol Remains the Main Villain

Ask any emergency-room doctor at Lisbon’s Hospital de Santa Maria and the answer is immediate: alcohol continues to be the single most lethal risk factor. Even at a 0.5 g/l reading, reaction times slow by up to 50 %, and coordination drops sharply. Yet a cultural tolerance for “just a glass of vinho do Porto” after dinner persists, especially among drivers aged 35-54, who make up the bulk of those detained, according to internal police briefings. Holiday dinners typically begin earlier, end later and feature stronger spirits, creating what the PSP calls the “fatal last kilometre” – the short drive from a relative’s home back to the hotel or rural house.

Inside the Police Playbook

Law-enforcement agencies have deployed a three-tier strategy:

Mass screening on A1, A2 and A23 toll lanes, where time-saving electronic toll fatigue often pairs with speed.

Random breath tests in town centres after midnight, targeting venues known for late-night “copos de Natal”.

Mobile radar traps where visibility is limited by winter rain and early dusk.

The GNR says it stopped 60 000 vehicles in just eight days, with 485 drivers testing positive for alcohol and 279 meeting the arrest threshold. Parallel patrols cracked down on unlicensed driving (173 arrests) and seized 131 vehicles deemed unsafe. Officers credit the surge in manpower to an €8 M allocation approved in October that allows overtime pay and drone-based monitoring.

Have Public Campaigns Moved the Needle?

The national slogan “Taxa Zero ao Volante” has blanketed TV, bus shelters and social media since summer, urging complete abstinence before driving. Early ANSR polls indicate 74 % of respondents now recognise the tagline, yet only 51 % say it changed their behaviour. Analysts blame the gap on inconsistent enforcement in rural areas and the fact that Portugal still permits a 0.5 g/l limit – higher than the 0.2 g/l adopted by Sweden or the 0.0 g/l enforced in Hungary. The government promised a public consultation on lowering the threshold this spring, but no legislative draft has been tabled.

What Drivers Can Do – Beyond the Obvious

• Nominate a sober driver before the first toast, not after dessert.• Make use of ride-hail discounts (Uber and Bolt offer 25 % off between 22.00 and 06.00 throughout December).• Keep an alcohol self-tester in the glove compartment – pharmacies sell certified units for under €15.• Remember that fatigue can mimic alcohol impairment; plan a 30-minute break every 200 km.• Save the 112 emergency number in favourites; seconds matter on rural roads where ambulances may travel 40 km to reach a crash site.

The Road Ahead

With another surge expected for the Réveillon getaway on 30 December, authorities pledge to maintain high-visibility patrols, adding segmented speed controls on IC19 and A5, the two corridors that funnel Lisbon’s urban exodus. If the provisional casualty toll triggers parliamentary debate on stricter alcohol laws in January, Portugal could finally align with the EU’s most rigorous standards. Until then, the safest gift anyone can offer loved ones is, quite simply, arriving home alive.