Police have arrested a woman it accuses of “intentionally” knocking down a Traffic Police officer after being flagged down. The woman (name withheld for lega reasons) was driving a Toyota RAV4, and is accused of knocking and injuring a Traffic Police officer at Gishushu in Gasabo District as she tried to speed to escape traffic scrutiny on Sunday. Jean Marie Vianney Ndushabandi, the spokesperson of the Traffic and Road Safety department, said the woman had no driving licence and was drunk at the time of the incident. He added that cases of drunk-driving are common. “At around 5:30am on Sunday, Police officers who were on duty at Kigali Business Centre (KBC), flagged her down for routine traffic checks, but she disobeyed and continued,” Ndushabandi said. “She was stopped again by Police officers at Gishushu where she disobeyed again and knocked and injured one of the officers as she tried to speed away,” Ndushabandi said. The suspect, a resident of Nyandungu in Kicukiro District, was later arrested by taxi-moto operators who pursued her after witnessing the incident, and handed over to Police. She is currently detained at Remera Police Station as investigations continue. The suspect also confessed to driving without a licence, but argued that she hit the officer accidentally. She, however, could not explain why she refused to stop when flagged down. Ndushabandi lauded motorcyclists for the noble action and warned of serious penalties to traffic offenders. He said means of acquiring a driving licence were made easy to facilitate those who need them. “Both the vehicle and the driver should be having all the requirements before hitting the road to avoid accidents, loss of lives and destruction of public infrastructure,” Ndushabandi said. In a related development, Ndushabandi also said another man was arrested for trying to bribe a Police officer at Remera vehicle mechanical inspection centre. The suspect supposedly tried to bribe the officer to give him priority for his car to be inspected before others ahead of him. “This centre has the capacity to inspect up to 350 vehicles per day in addition to about 80 others inspected daily by the mobile lane in provinces. There is no need of taking illegal shortcuts to acquire services,” he said.
