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Four people convicted of drunk driving have been sent to jail without the option of paying fines, and four have had their drivers licences cancelled. Photo: Cindy Waxa
City and provincial authorities have arrested more than 2 500 motorists for drunk driving in the Western Cape in the past five months – an average of more than 500 a month.
A total of at least 2 555 motorists have been arrested since June - a figure compiled by the Cape Times from statistics provided by the City of Cape Town’s traffic service, provincial traffic service and metro police traffic officers, who conduct separate or integrated roadblocks but keep separate statistics.
These figures have been compiled as new campaigns have been launched to raise awareness about drunk-driving, campaigns which authorities say appear to be starting to shift driver attitudes.
Provincial traffic chief Kenny Africa said the number of drunk-driving arrests made monthly were affected by factors such as sporting events, the time of the month and the location of roadblocks.
Provincial traffic officers were responsible for main and national roads in the Western Cape and held 24 roadblocks each weekend.
In July this year provincial traffic officers arrested 198 drunk drivers, the highest number of arrests the provincial traffic service recorded in five months.
Africa attributed this to the World Cup during which a number of people had travelled between provinces to get to and from matches.
Numbers arrested spiked again in October when provincial traffic officers arrested 160 motorists for drunk driving, a figure up by 46 compared to the previous month.
“One of the main reasons it went up is because there were more rugby matches and other sporting events during the month.
“We also changed our strategy and went from static roadblocks to moving roadblocks which move from area to area,” Africa said.
Community Safety MEC Albert Fritz said a range of factors affected the number of drunk-driving arrests made weekly.
“It’s very interesting how sports and other big events in Cape Town actually affect the arrests,” he said.
Merle Lourens, spokeswoman for the City of Cape Town’s traffic service, said four or five roadblocks were held a month in and around the city, not necessarily in the same areas each time.
She said the location of roadblocks depended on, among other factors, the accident rate in a particular area.
About 25 officers were deployed to each City of Cape Town roadblock.
The metro police also held roadblocks within the city, mostly over weekends.
Deputy metro police chief Yolanda Faro said the time and place of operations was planned according to offence patterns and crime threat analysis.
She said extra roadblocks and visible policing were planned for the festive season to clamp down on drunk driving.
Transport MEC Robin Carlisle said the figure of more than 2 500 arrests in five months was “extraordinarily high”, even by international standards.
But Carlisle said a number of initiatives aimed at clamping down on drunk driving had recently started bearing fruit.
These included the “Name and Shame” campaign which started last month and which involves the names of convicted drunk drivers being published.
“What we are finding, and that’s through chatting to people on buses, etc, is that they are aware of the campaign. There’s a change in attitude.
“We want to get the message across that it’s simply not worth having that extra glass of wine,” Carlisle said.
Fritz agreed that there appeared to be a shift in behaviour very recently.
Regarding the Name and Shame campaign, he said: “People are apparently petrified about this campaign.
“They’re really worried, so aren’t drinking and driving,” he said.
Fritz said extra visible policing and roadblocks seemed to result in fewer motorists taking chances.
Africa agreed that extra operations and the campaigns appeared to be working.
“The message is really getting out now. We won’t stop with the roadblocks until we’re not making any more drunk-driving arrests.
“There’s definitely a change in driver behaviour. We’ve received many phone calls from motorists saying they won’t be driving drunk any more because, for example, a friend or a colleague on Facebook told them not to drink and drive,” he said.
After radio broadcasts in which motorists were urged not to drink and drive, Africa said there was a decrease in the number of arrests being made in roadblocks.
“Motorists are adhering to our call.”
Africa said during the recent FNB Whisky Live Festival, designated drivers had also been provided with stickers indicating they should not be served alcohol, and this had been obeyed.
Africa said he had noticed a number of people had opted to use metered taxis instead of their own cars to return home.
Alison Brussow, the national marketing manager of Good Fellas, a service providing a chauffeur for your car, said the number of people making use of the service had increased over the past few months.
On one weekend this month, 450 clients in the Western Cape had used Good Fellas, a figure higher than in previous weeks.
“The number of clients certainly has increased. It usually does during the festive season when there are Christmas parties… Policing on the roads has also become a little more strict.
“The culture seems to be changing. It’s not cool to be drinking and driving any more,” Brussow said.
caryn.dolley@inl.co.za - Cape Times
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dui, wrote
Drunk driving is bad. Reckless driving is worse. One can argue that drunk driving is by definition reckless. Public transport is very poor. "Real" crime makes public transport even less appealing. Until people have an alternative, they will continue to drink and drive. Fix public transport, fix "real" crime and then throw the book at people who drink and drive.
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Anonymous, wrote
personally, I think that driving in south Africa in general is really disgraceful, people are not obeying the following distance, not being courteous, forcing you to drive in the yellow line(as far as I know this is not a rule, and only for emergencies) why must I drive in the yellow line if i am driving the speed limit, but you want to race, and drive 40kmh over. Speed doesn't kill. Ignorance does.
Dr. Zeek, wrote
and in other news: 2500 bribes paid to cops in joburg... makes you think, eh?
rubbish, wrote
And still the point is being missed completely. In my experience the reason people drive drunk is not because they "think its cool" or feel the need to end someone's life. They do it because they feel they have no choice. The government taxes and condones drinking but nothing is done about AFFORDABLE and SAFE public transport to get back home. Don't tell me to take a metered taxi when it costs more than the entire night out - one way. Don't tell me to get on an unpoliced train at 2am. Of course people are sh*t-scared of the name and shame campaign. Some of these people have not harmed a fly in their lives, yet they can get a criminal record because they wanted to have a drink with friends. Give me safe and affordable public transport 24hrsday and I will stop drinking and driving.
Anonymous, wrote
Give us a functioning public transport system as well please. Otherwise you make people prisoners in their own suburbs.
Anonymous, wrote
Ok, I do not condone drink driving, however, it looks like sitting at home is the best option because to catch a taxi for a 15 minute drive is R200 each way and not many people can afford that, we need a system like the UK has where it is cheap to hire a taxi, sooo guys home it is or one of you has to be "dry" driver ooohhh and dont even go down the road of smoking, I recon the world has lost its sense of humour......
Anonymous, wrote
Ok, I do not condone drink driving, however, it looks like sitting at home is the best option because to catch a taxi for a 15 minute drive is R200 each way and not many people can afford that, we need a system like the UK has where it is cheap to hire a taxi, sooo guys home it is or one of you has to be "dry" driver ooohhh and dont even go down the road of smoking, I recon the world has lost its sense of humour......
Dean, wrote
Drunk drivers must be jailed with no option of a fine. It is a criminal offence like murder , rape etc but the perpetrators get away by paying the fine. They should be blacklisted the same as those with a bad credit record and fired or denied employment.Finally why do they sell alcohol at sport events, People watching sport when they are drunk , who can watch sport when they are drunk? Have seen drunk people vomitting , fighting and urinating at sport events in front of kids.Can"t we enjoy ourselves without alcohol?
Dean, wrote
Drunk drivers must be jailed with no option of a fine. It is a criminal offence like murder , rape etc but the perpetrators get away by paying the fine. They should be blacklisted the same as those with a bad credit record and fired or denied employment.Finally why do they sell alcohol at sport events, People watching sport when they are drunk , who can watch sport when they are drunk? Have seen drunk people vomitting , fighting and urinating at sport events in front of kids.Can"t we enjoy ourselves without alcohol?
Pangaman, wrote
From the Cape of Storms, then the Cape of Goodhope and now the Cape of Drunkards! What next? Maybe the Cape of Drunken Masters? He, he, he, he!
boerseun, wrote
Maybe the different departments shouls start working together.Why not arrange for more reliable and safe public transport to sporting events? Expecting people to stop drinking at sporting events is like expecting dogs to stoplicking their testicles.
Anonymous, wrote
The police are infringing on the rights of these motorists to drive drunk.....so using the same logic ask the Unions who wish to block the demerit system as I am sure many of their members will also be affected.
Believer, wrote
Now one can finally understand the reasoning behind the Liquor Laws, however an alcoholic is most likely not going to be hindered by some law for he is smarter than that. Glad to hear the Name and Shame campaign is doing its bit to help reverse the situation.
Michael, wrote
Its simple - know where the road blocks are - i drive drunk almost every Friday and Saturday night and have yet to be caught by Cape Town police.
Anonymous, wrote
How about a safe, reliable public transport system before you decide to do this? In fact, how about a safe country?!
Sean, wrote
How about jacking up our public transport services or lack of it. Least the coppers appear to be losing weight in all their activities.
Anonymous, wrote
i hope all provinces can learn from cape town to avoid unnecesary deaths on our roads
Part of No Part, wrote
Well done on bringing in these lawless thugs. But I would really like to know is why the silence on the numbers for June? What kind of hypocrisy is at play here? So its OK to go around D&D during the World Cup? And Please dont give me the Jive about July numbers. I would hazard a quess that those were all after the WC If this is the message then the law is not applied equally.
kissmystudio, wrote
Well done!!!! Throw the flippin book at them.
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