Motorists have begun to sweat in the high beams of Costa Rica's recently approved traffic law, which consists of harsher punishments for anything from failing to buckle up to driving under the influence.

Yesterday afternoon the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court received its first appeal by a man accused of drunken driving. The man, with the last name Fuentes, is appealing against a section of the new law that calls for a prison sentence for motorists caught driving while intoxicated, the court said in a statement.

Fuentes cited the World Health Organization's categorization of alcoholism as a disease and claimed the state should apply curative measures rather than criminalize drunken driving, according to the statement.

The case came after a week in which police arrested dozens of drivers for allegedly driving under the influence. Authorities said 26 arrests were made over the weekend in Filadelfia, in the northwestern province of Guanacaste, when people were purportedly driving after drinking at a party in the area.

The drivers' vehicles and licenses were taken away and could be held for up to two years, while the motorists could face one to three years in jail, TV channel 7's Web site, www.teletica.com, reported.

See http://www.ticotimes.net/topstoryarchive/2008_12/121208.htm for more on the new traffic law.