A JOINT operation between the Durban North police station and the Road Traffic Inspectorate (RTI) saw the arrest of 31 drunk drivers on the M4 Ruth First Highway on Friday evening (August 15).

In honour of Women’s Month, the operation was an all-women-driven roadblock and focused on road safety, especially driving under the influence.

Spokesperson for the police station, Sergeant Nonhlanhla Shozi, said it was extremely worrying.

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“The roadblock was held on the M4 going north just before the Virginia off-ramp. It was a successful operation in that 31 drivers were detained for driving under the influence of alcohol. We are warning motorists that we have a zero tolerance approach for drunken driving and within a few hours we were able to detain so many people who were over the limit,” she said.

Shozi added operations like this roadblock were one of the ways to address accidents which could lead to fatalities.

Earlier this year Barbara Creecy, the Minister of Transport, said government hopes to reduce crashes and fatalities by at least 50% by 2029 through proactive policing and operations.

At the time her comment was based on the Easter period, when the country recorded the lowest number of crashes and fatalities in the last three years.

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