Cape Town - A man caught driving at five times over the legal alcohol limit was among 19 people arrested for drunk driving at the weekend.
The Brackenfell motorist’s breath alcohol level tested at 1.34mg per 1000ml; the legal limit is 0.24mg per 1000ml. This was the highest recorded number by traffic officers who set up roadblocks across the province over the weekend to nab drunk drivers.
The arrests came just a week after carnage on the province’s roads, with 43 people dying in multiple crashes over two weekends this month.
This weekend brought the weekend death toll to 58, making it the bloodiest month so far this year.
Last week Western Cape MEC for transport and public works Donald Grant said alcohol played a role in the large number of road fatalities.
The city’s mayoral committee member for safety and security, JP Smith, said there was a blatant disregard for drunk driving rules, with too many drivers still taking chances.
SUPPORT FOR ‘ZERO LIMIT’
This has led to advocacy groups, such as South Africans Against Drunk Driving, supporting plans by the National Department to introduce a new “zero limit” in order to cut back on the number of deaths linked to drunk driving.
The organisation’s founder, Cato Smit, said it was backing the new policy for a variety of reasons, namely that alcohol abuse was behind about 65 percent of around 20 000 road deaths each year.
“The Department of Transport is not going to achieve the ‘Decade of Action’ pledge we took to reduce the death rate by 50 percent before 2020 unless we take drastic measures,” she said.
The “Decade of Action” was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2010 and called on 90 countries to reduce the number of deaths and injuries on roads.
National transport minister Dipuo Peters said crashes cost the country about R40 billion each year.
Meanwhile, Western Cape traffic chief Kenny Africa said 608 vehicles were screened for speeding, of which 29 offences were recorded.
The fastest speed was recorded on the N1, where traffic officers caught a motorist travelling at 145km/h in a 120km/h zone.
There were crashes across the province in which 15 people were killed in 14 incidents. More than half the people killed were pedestrians.
Cape Argus