Seven people will appear in special court sittings today charged with drunk driving in major centres.

A Land Transport Authority staff is among the seven people arrested. Interestingly, when the LTA staff was arrested at 2am on Friday, the initial arresting documents had his occupation filled as self-employed.

Further investigations by Police will be conducted before deciding if the LTA officer will be charged with giving false information to a public officer.

The LTA staff member was arrested after failing a breathalyser test reading that allegedly came to 73/100mg.

This means that for every 100 millilitres of breath, 73 micrograms of alcohol was detected. The limit for full drivers licence holders is 35/100mg.

For provisional and learners licence holders, zero micrograms of alcohol is permitted, which also is the same for all public service vehicle drivers. These arrests were made from early Thursday evening until the early hours yesterday.

Other arrests

A 50-year-old man was arrested at around 10pm on Thursday.

His breathalyser test allegedly recorded 97/100mg. The Samabula man was arrested and remanded at the Samabula Police Station.

Three arrests were made in the Western Division.

A 32-year-old fisherman of Nasoso was arrested at around 2am yesterday. His reading was allegedly 74/100mg.

A Saweni labourer was taken in at around 11.20pm on Thursday with an alleged reading of 69/100mg.

A Vitogo, Lautoka farmer, 57, allegedly had 86/100mg when he was arrested at around 8pm.

In Labasa, one arrest was made at around 2am yesterday.

But it was not just drunk drivers keeping the Police busy as the long Easter weekend kicked off.

At around 12.30am yesterday, a pedestrian was hit by a car after he crossed in front of a vehicle.

Director Traffic Senior Superintendent (SSP) Mahesh Mishra said despite prior warning that Police would be out in numbers and any person caught driving under the influence will not be bailed before appearing in court, people continued to ignore the warnings.

“We have very clear instructions. Anyone caught drunk driving will not be bailed before we take them before court. We wanted an accident-free long Easter weekend and we are working very hard to avoid any fatal accidents.

“People will not be let-off easily when they are caught drink driving.”

Drivers who will be caught from today will appear in court on Monday.

Edited by Naisa Koroi

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