Fanuel Vhiriri
A Limpopo man’s craving for KFC ended with a court date instead of a 21-piece after he was arrested for drunk driving on the N2, heading 80km in the wrong direction in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.
Road Traffic Inspectorate [RTI] officers from Park Rynie pulled the motorist over at about 8:30am on Thursday after he was seen weaving between lanes near Umhlanga.
The man, who works as a rigger at a mine, told officers he had left his Umhlanga hotel to buy KFC and was “on his way back to sleep.” There was just one problem: he was travelling south towards Port Shepstone, not north towards Umhlanga. “Despite RTI informing him that he was driving in a southerly direction, he insisted that he was driving north. In fact, he was 80 kilometres away from Umhlanga,” the KZN Department of Transport said.
Officials said the driver was struggling to stay in his lane and posed a serious risk to other motorists.
“Had RTI failed to remove him from the road, his erratic driving would have resulted in a head-on collision, a rear-end crash, or a sideswipe — with the potential loss of innocent lives,” the department said.
The department added that alcohol remains a major factor in fatal crashes on KZN roads, citing past N2 accidents that killed “eight to ten family members” in a single crash.
The motorist is expected to appear in the Scottburgh Magistrate’s Court to face charges of driving under the influence of alcohol.
