Despite intensified checks for drivers who have consumed alcohol or drugs, sometimes the officers don´t have to look far, as the offenders sometimes find them.
During the weekend storms, officers were called to an incident where a tree had fallen onto the N-301 road blocking passage between Miranda and El Albujón, near to Cartagena.
The officers immediately set up a safety exclusion zone using signs, tetrapod cones, lights and their vehicles, also displaying lights, and they proceeded to direct traffic using their hand-held illuminated devices.
For reasons which were unclear at the time, although soon to be obvious, one driver approaching the scene decided to ignore the instructions to stop from the officers and proceeded into the danger zone.
At the other end of that protected area was another Guardia Civil patrol vehicle, which our disobedient driver managed to hit with his own car, causing minor injuries to the officers and damage to the patrol car.
Having successfully stopped the vehicle following the collision, the officers identified the 35-year old driver, as resident of Fuente Álamo, who gave a positive result to an alcohol test, having given a result of 0.69 and 0.67 milligrams per litre of exhaled air in two separate tests.
The officers then tested for the presence of drugs and found that the driver had also consumed cocaine, also failing that test. Both vehicles had to be removed from the scene by a tow-truck on account of the damage suffered.
The officers subsequently arrested the driver for road traffic offences, for driving under the influence of both alcoholic and drugs, and presented him to the courts in Cartagena, where he now faces imprisonment of between 3 to 6 months, a fine of 6 to 12 months or community service for between 31 to 90 days, and in any case the deprivation of the right to drive motor vehicles and mopeds for a up to 4 years.
