ABSTRACT
All hotels in Copacabana have a bathers’ exit where one collects mats and umbrellas and takes a fresh-water shower. This civilized adjunct is marred by the perils of crossing the Avenida Atlantica barefoot in the face of ruthless drivers, who do not take the European attitude that it is forbidden to run down pedestrians. In early 1966 Brazilian traffic laws were so impossibly onerous that their net effect was to minimize pedestrians’ safety. For instance, if a person was run down and subsequently died, anyone who had helped him at the scene of the accident might find himself accessory to his death and be clapped into gaol. The tendency was, therefore, to report the accident and do nothing for the injured. The motorist was automatically gaoled in any accident, unless he managed to avoid detention for twenty-four hours, then gave himself up through a lawyer and got bail. It was, therefore, almost automatic for the report of automobile accidents to read, in conclusion, ‘the driver fled’.
