Officers from the Guardia Civil in the Region of Murcia have intercepted and detained a coach driver who was carrying 40 passengers whilst sit times over the maximum permitted alcohol limit.
The incident occurred at around 17:30 on Wednesday when the Guardia Civil operations centre was alerted by a service station employee in the Jumilla municipality over suspicions that the driver was displaying signs of intoxication.
A traffic patrol was dispatched to intercept the vehicle as it headed towards Alicante. In order to minimise the risk to the passengers and other road users the officers stopped the coach in the La Paz service station on the A-7, located in Sangonera la Seca.
Once the vehicle was safely off the off the road the driver was subjected to a mandatory alcohol test in which he yielded a positive result of 1.02 and 0.99 milligrams of alcohol per litre of exhaled air, six times the maximum rate permitted in the case of professional drivers, which is 0.15 mg / litre.
The driver, who was carrying 40 Chinese tourists from Granada to Valencia, was arrested for an alleged crime of driving under the influence of alcohol and exceeding the established rates, and was brought before the courts in Murcia, where he faces a prison sentence of between 6 to 12 months, community service between 31 and 90 days, a fine and the termination of his licence for up to 4 years.
The officers praised the actions of the service station employee in reporting the suspicions to them, and appeal to all citizens to exercise a civil conscience and, without hesitation, contact the Guardia Civil on 062 (in Spanish) or the emergency coordination centre on 112 (other languages) to report suspicious drivers who may have consumed excessive alcohol or drugs.
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