With the cold and rainy winter months approaching, the City of Cape Town has expressed concern about the driving behaviour of Capetonians. Recent statistics have shown that drunk driving arrests doubled week on week, with the City’s enforcement agencies issuing nearly 61,000 fines in the past week. Nearly 32,000 of the issued fines were for speeding.

Traffic officers recorded 54 043 violations, impounded 266 vehicles and executed 889 warrants of arrest during the same period.

Officers also arrested 75 motorists, including 58 for drunk driving, 8 for reckless and negligent driving, and 9 others for various other transgressions. The previous week, the arrests tally was 36, with 28 motorists arrested for driving under the influence.

“Drunk driving arrests doubled week on week, and again, we had well over 50,000 traffic transgressions recorded. Speeding, or driving impaired is fine, until you crash and hurt yourself, or even worse, someone else.” – Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, JP Smith

Smith has advised motorists to “give that accelerator a break” and stop speeding, drive with headlights on at all times, be patient and courteous, and most importantly, avoid driving under the influence.

“Driving is challenging enough in good weather conditions – with the change of seasons, conditions are becoming even more challenging”

• Law Enforcement officers made 263 arrests and issued 4 133 notices.
• Metro Police officers made 70 arrests and issued 2 713 fines.

Over the weekend, the City’s Public Emergency Communication Centre experienced a slightly reduced workload, recording a total of 1,794 incidents. Among these, 739 were medical complaints.

Additionally, the centre logged 53 fire incidents, a decrease from the previous weekend’s 78. There were also 115 assault cases, down from 187, along with 54 incidents of domestic violence compared to 48 previously recorded.

Meanwhile, Road accidents increased to 72, up from 68.