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A Johannesburg metro police officer was arrested for driving drunk after a high-speed car chase ended in a collision, Johannesburg metro police said on Sunday.
"A metro police officer was arrested last (Saturday) night by the Internal Affairs Unit after he crashed his private car into a parked car on the corner of Main and Ferreira Streets in Rosettenville," said Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar.
The Internal Affairs Unit works 24 hours to investigate misconduct among metro police officers.
Members of the unit spotted a stationary car at a green traffic light close to midnight on Saturday, Minnaar said. They then noticed the driver slumped over the wheel.
When the unit approached the car, the driver woke up and sped away.
"He realised who they were and attempted to flee from the officers by driving through a number of red lights," Minnaar said.
"He drove like crazy to get away from them," he said.
The chase ended when the fleeing officer crashed his car into another vehicle parked on the side of the road, Minnaar said.
Internal Affairs officers then identified the man as a metro police officer.
A breathalyser test showed his blood alcohol volume at 0.6mg per 1000ml of breath, three times over the legal limit.
"A disciplinary investigation will follow," Minnaar said.
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National traffic subsiding
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Traffic is beginning to subside on national roads across the country, the Department of Transport said on Sunday evening.
Spokesman Logan Maistry said this was after more than 2000 vehicles were counted passing the Mooi River Toll Plaza on the N3 and a couple of other tollgates per hour on Sunday afternoon.
He said most provinces experienced high volumes of traffic since holiday makers were returning home as many of them were expected to
go back to work on Monday.
Maistry said more traffic was expected on national roads next weekend as more holiday makers head back to their homes.
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Road death figures 'fixed'
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Road deaths in December 2009 were higher than December 2008, contrary to the transport department's claims that they had decreased by 142, said a driving skills company on Monday.
Managing director of driving.co.za, Rob Handfield-Jones, said the department of transport's claim that the December 2009 road death toll was lower than that of December 2008 was invalid and based on contradictory statistics.
"The department is currently claiming the death toll for December 2008 to be 1 348; it was actually 908. The death toll of 1 050 for December 2009 is thus not a reduction, but an increase of almost 16%," he said in a statement.
He said December 2009 claimed 142 more lives when compared to the same month in 2008, despite around 285 000 speeding tickets
being issued.
"Speed control has once again been shown to be ineffective at reducing road deaths."
Handfield-Jones called for the introduction of a new driving licence system and a Professional Driving Permit which included a driving skills test, saying the current system produced poor drivers.
"Across the world, people only drive as badly as their governments permit them to," he said.
The parliamentary portfolio committee on transport should investigate how the department of transport came to use contradictory data in road safety comparisons and whether the statistics were fixed, he said.
Department spokesman Logan Maistry maintained that there was a decrease in a number of road fatalities in December 2009 when compared with the same time in 2008.
He said statistics released to media were not final and that Minister of Transport Sbu Ndebele would release final statistics later in this month.
Arguing about statistics, he said, was not the department's main concern.
"Road deaths are more than mere statistics, it's people's lives.
"We have no reason to fiddle with figures, our aim as government is to save lives. For us one road death, is one too many."
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Spyker Pitches Final Bid for Saab
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GM may just get to sell Saab afterall.
According to the Swedish business daily Dagens Industri, Dutch boutique automaker Spyker has devised yet another bid to buy the troubled brand from General Motors. This is the third bid Spyker has put forward for a purchase of Saab. GM rejected the two previous offers because it did not like the terms of the deal.
In an interview with Reuters, Spyker CEO Victor Muller said that the bid would be submitted before a January 7 deadline set by GM. "We have gotten time for a final offer. Nothing has been rejected," Muller said.
If the deal goes through, Spyker says it plans to rebuild the Saab brand around the 9-3, 9-5 and 9-4X models, as well as introducing an entry-level 9-1 model. According to Muller, Saab would remain based in Trollhattan, Sweden and would retain many of its production ties with GM. GM would also continue to produce engines for Saab.
Muller said the Trollhattan plant will continue to produce most Saab models, including the new 9-5 set for launch this spring and a 9-3 scheduled for introduction in 2012. The 9-4X crossover, which will be produced by GM at its plant in Ramos Arizpe, Mexico, is set to debut later this year or in early 2011.
But Spyker still needs to come up with the money to buy Saab. Spyker's bid is backed by Russian and Arab investors but the Dutch carmaker itself is a loss-making enterprise, having made only 43 cars in 2008.
The Saab brand is also losing sales rapidly. It sold over 93,000 units in 2008 but for 2009 that number will be closer to 60,000.
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