As KwaZulu-Natal’s Operation Juggernaut enters its fifth week, traffic officials in the province caught two motorists for driving at excessive speeds along the N3 at the weekend.
As KwaZulu-Natal’s Operation Juggernaut enters its fifth week, traffic officials in the province caught two motorists for driving at excessive speeds along the N3 at the weekend.
The drama started when a gold Audi Quattro Turbo, driven by Johannesburg building contractor Thabo Mbunda, 29, shot through a speed trap near Mooi River doing 174km/h.
Road Traffic Inspectorate spokesman Colin Govender said officers tried to flag Mbunda down but he didn’t stop, so they gave chase and radioed their colleagues near Tweedie to stop him.
According to a report, Mbunda was doing 200km/h at Tweedie and again failed to pull over. The chase continued, now with four traffic police cars in pursuit.
At the Hilton off-ramp, Mbunda left the freeway and continued speeding down the twisty Old Howick Road.
At the bottom, traffic officers, alerted to the drama, managed to finally halt him, after a 30-minute dash. Mbunda claimed the woman with him – whom he said was his wife – was pregnant and that gave him the right to speed.
Paramedics were called but the woman, giggling at traffic cops, refused to be examined at a nearby hospital.
In another incident, a woman driver was clocked at 202 km/h. Both motorists were arrested and will appear in court today after being released on bail of R1 500 each.
Meanwhile, KZN traffic spokesman Logan Maistry said Operation Juggernaut had, since November 9, led to the arrest of 627 people for driving under the influence and 950 unroadworthy vehicles being pulled off the roads.
Maistry said more than 20 000 traffic offences had been logged and summonses issued up to December 14.
“From December 1-13 , 104 074 vehicles were recorded heading east at the Mooi River toll plaza and 221 376 vehicles at the Marianhill toll plaza,” he added. “During this period 84 per cent of drivers exceeded the 80k m/h speed limit and about 15 per cent failed to adhere to the recommended two-second following distance on the N3 over Van Reenen’s Pass.”
