Staff Reporter
A driver who demanded to be detained in a holding cell with a sea view of Umhlanga Beach was among 67 motorists arrested on suspicion of drunk driving in KwaZulu-Natal over two nights of Easter roadblocks, the provincial transport department said on Sunday.
In a statement issued by the office of the MEC for Transport and Human Settlements, the department said Road Traffic Inspectorate (RTI) officers arrested 27 motorists in operations in Umhlanga and Durban North on Friday, followed by another 40 arrests in Durban North on Saturday night.
The statement described a string of unusual encounters during the crackdown.
It said one woman, dressed in red, cried uncontrollably and insisted she had only “drunk tea after coming from the gym”, while another motorist allegedly “urinated on himself” before offering officers a bribe of between R500 and R1,200. The bribe was captured on a Facebook live stream.
A Polo driver, asked by authorities why he had stopped at an intersection, said he was waiting for the traffic lights to turn green. The intersection had no traffic lights.
KwaZulu-Natal launched the #NenzaniLaEzweni Easter and Passover road-safety campaign on 24 March, deploying more than 3,483 law enforcement officers and 105 national traffic police officers across the province.
The department said the operation would include 148 multidisciplinary roadblocks, more than 80 of them focused on drunk driving, as well as over 118 speed enforcement operations in high-risk areas.
On Friday night, one driver was recorded as having 10 times the legal alcohol limit.
The department said the operation — live streamed on Facebook — had growing public support.
It said it was encouraged by a decline in road fatalities and crashes since the campaign began, although it gave no updated figures.
The Easter crackdown will run around the clock until 3 May as holiday traffic builds on routes used by holidaymakers.
The drivers are scheduled to appear in court on Monday.
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