Desperate times call for desperate measures. And so desperate was a Durban driver to evade arrest that he told Metro Police officers that he was an Independent Newspapers journalist when he was caught driving at three times the legal blood alcohol limit at a roadblock this week.
The officers soon called his bluff, though, when he was told two of his colleagues were at the scene. The wanna-be journalist quickly changed his tune when The Independent on Saturday reporter and photographer quizzed him about which title he worked for.
He first claimed to work for our sister newspaper, Isolezwe, but later conceded that he had told the fib in an attempt to worm his way out of a fine or possible jail term.
“So I lied, but that is irrelevant to the situation because I’m not drunk.”
Police had to handcuff him when he refused to cooperate with them during a roadblock at Umgeni Road and St Mathias intersection on Thursday night. His reading was 1.61mg per 1000ml of breath; the legal limit is 0.24mg.
The 32-year-old Newlands West man, wearing a white vest and faded jeans, said he had not touched alcohol at all that day and demanded that the breathalyser test be redone.
He also put up a fight when a nurse on site tried to take his blood sample.
But he was not the only one who resorted to trickery during the blitz, as officers had to handcuff two other drivers who were adamant that they had not touched a drop of alcohol.
Tempers flared when a the driver of a flashy BMW, referred to one of the officers as a “moffie”, a derogatory term used to mock gay men.
The angry officer had to be restrained by one of his superiors when the driver, who had refused to blow into the breathalyser, kept on mocking him.
The driver was arrested and his blood was tested.
Metro Police senior superintendent Eric Khuzwayo said 16 drivers had been arrested for drunk driving in less than four hours.
He said the average breathalyser reading was 1.16mg per 1000ml of breath. Khuzwayo said his unit would continue with sporadic roadblocks right through the Easter weekend. - Independent on Saturday