Police to mount 'Sobriety Checkpoints' over Christmas

BAME PIET
Staff Writer | Friday November 14, 2008 00:00

A spokesman of the traffic police, Bruno Paledi, said at a press briefing yesterday that the objective of the operation is to have the community see the seriousness of the problem first hand.

The police will involve the Department of Road Safety and Transport, health workers, the District Commissioner's office, the magistrate's office, Village Development Committees and members of the public at roadblocks mounted around the village.

The 'mission' will be taken to other places afterwards.

The police aim to develop a framework for comprehensive impaired driving prevention strategy from the operation. 'A draft guiding document has been drafted to serve as an operation or 'how-to-guide' manual for traffic commanders in pursuit of this strategy,' Paledi said.

The police also want to give different sections of the public an opportunity to make a difference in their communities by raising awareness of the deadly consequences of impaired driving and cycling and by building and expanding partnerships among local and national organisations. Another goal is to partner with youth organisations in containing the problem of underage drinking and impaired driving.

'The programme will act as a deterrent to drivers who drink or use drugs and as a reminder to the general public that impaired driving is a crime. The strategy is bound to increase the perceived risk of arrest,' Paledi continued, adding that the drunken driving arrests being made countrywide are just a drop in the ocean relative to the magnitude of the problem.

'Whether one is in law enforcement or involved in community advocacy, we hope to enlist such interested parties to help by turning up the volume about impaired driving and by encouraging others to act responsibly,' he said.

Police hope that the conduct of the sobriety checkpoints will significantly advance public interest in a manner that will outweigh the attendant intrusion on individual rights and inconvenience. 'No less intrusive means are available to accomplish the nation's goal of fighting drunken driving,' Paledi stated.

In response to a question, Paledi said the programme had long been in the pipeline and was not an instruction from anyone. He said Mahalapye was chosen as the launch pad because its section of the A1 Highway is a death trap.

'Statistics show that The section from Dibete up to Mma George near Palapye contributes the majority of accidents along the A1 Highway,' he said.

Meanwhile, many in Gaborone are complaining that in their fight against drunken driving, police officers deployed at traffic lights around the capital abuse motorists.

To this, Paledi, said some of the complaints emanating Operation Red Light, as it is called in Gaborone, are not genuine and that they will keep deploying officers at traffic lights to report red light jumpers and other traffic offences.

He said deploying officers is 'hassle free', cheaper than fitting CCTV cameras at traffic lights, and that many people feel safer at traffic lights than before Operation Red Light was mounted.

Meanwhile, related news is that excluding government vehicles, there are approximately 260, 000 vehicles registered in Botswana.

*The police weekly report says over 200 people have died in road accidents since the beginning of the year.