CopperbeltProvince Minister Mwenya Musenge has directed all hospitals in the province to do blood tests on all persons intoxicated with alcohol in order for the police to come up with strong cases on offenders.
Mr Musenge gave the directive at a press briefing in Ndola yesterday after the police could not take blood tests to determine alcohol content of two men because the police were supposed to pay at the hospital for the exercise to be carried out.
The Copperbelt minister has since called for stiffer punishment on reckless drivers saying the KR270 charge given to those found wanting was too minimal.
He said according to the Road Traffic Act those found intoxicated were to be fined, imprisoned or both but pointed out that offenders should be imprisoned to deter others from committing such offences.
Mr Musenge said government would not tolerate reckless as it was barely three weeks when over 50 people had died in a road traffic accident.
Mr Musenge has since urged the police to find a way of withdrawing driving licences to reckless drivers if road carnage was to reduce.
The Minister explained that on Sunday around 17:00 hours, Chapuswike Mukobe an employee of Worker’s Compensation Fund and Emmanuel Sichula a worker at Wood Processing Company almost caused a head on collision with two separate trucks.
Mr Musenge said upon noticing that the car was not being driven well, he stopped Mukobe and Sichula whose car had bottles of alcohol and that the driver could not stand when he came out of the car as he was drunk.
He said Sichula started insulting the minister for being stopped until police were called and detained the two at Ndola central police.
Sichula and Mukobe pleaded for forgiveness from the minister during the press briefing but Mr Musenge said that the duo should be examples to would be offenders.
ZANIS
chapuswike…lol
belegede
So after it affects you thats when you realise how risky drunken drivers are on our roads. Infact, lets do it the Japanese way. If you are caught drunken driving beyond the established limit, your employers are notified consequently you lose your job. In Poland, if the car is yours, when you were under DUI ( Driving Under Influence) , the next Saturday you car will be publicly auctioned. We need to toughen DUI laws in Zambia….. Its dangerous to drive late on Fridays and Saturdays in Zambia as folks drive on the middle of the road and others in zig-zag format.
Why cant the police use breathrisers on people suspected to be drunk while driving?If Zambia has no breathrisers they can easily buy them from South Africa.I dont think hospitals are supposed to be used for enforcing the traffic laws as it is the duty of the police to do so.
1. breathalysers are there in Zambia, but under the current law, breathalyser evidence cannot “stand” in court
2. the problem the police have presented here is that they do not have money to pay at hospitals. so someone should put this provision in their budget, instead of just directing them to take people for tests.
Breathalysers are only useful for a cop at the scene of the crime to determine whether the culprit is above the set limit and to make a decision on whether to take the issue further, like the court in which a blood test would then be needed.
Nalipusuka ine!
High time they equipped the hospitals.
High time they equipped the police. A doctor cannot leave the patients to go to court to testify on the authenticity of the blood results being presented. Otherwise if a police man who did not test the blood presents those results in court, He will be grilled by a sharp lawyer and the drunkard will be freed of any wrong doing.
The law must be expanded if that has not been done already to cover other intoxicating substances other than alcohol alone.
People can consume drugs and get behind the wheel and cause havoc on our death trap highways.
The police force has specially trained nurses, lab techs and doctors in forensics who can carry out those blood tests. Hospitals are already congested with patients, you want to add drunkards to the queues? Are they going to be given preference over the patients? cos the longer they wait in the queue the less evidence you will find in the blood.
Very true
How do they who is drunk and who is not before they test, why not say random tests will be done on all drivers, or everyone involved in and accident. selection criteria with the view to correct and curb the vice is important.
Imwe bantu thats not the way it works if you want convictions. The police must have their own blood testing units or appoint a private laboratory to do so for them. The hospitals need to focus on their patients not on crime. Crime is police’s baby.
hmmmm…..lets be serious how can one send me to prison 4 driving drunk , my own car? Also blood test? which needles will give me AIDS, who pays for the same? What if iam jehovas witness, i dont remove blood for any excuse from my gud body? u must think b4 ukubwatabwata
ITS A SIMPLE ISSUE LIKE HERE IN BOTSWANA THE POLICE HAVE MOBILE “BOOZE BUSES”-YOU KNOW THE M/BENZ TYPE EQUIPED WITH ALL THAT IS NECESSARY TO TEST DRUNKEN DRIVERS ON THE ROAD ON THE SPOT.
I BELIEVE ZAMBIA CAN AFFORD THAT, IT WILL SAVE LIVES AND IT IMPROVES ECONOMIES IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN..
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