A male cabbie was arrested on Thursday for drunk driving as he rear ended a car parked in the Rotunda de Carlos da Maia (colloquially known as “Three Lamps”) neighbourhood and fleeing the scene, Public Security Police (PSP) Cheuk Kou Chi said at a press briefing on Monday.
The 45-year-old local suspect is surnamed Ho.
According to Cheuk, the Public Security Police received a report from a car owner on Thursday night who said that his or her car that was parked in Rua da Restauração near Rotunda de Carlos da Maia had been damaged. The police did not reveal the car owner’s gender.
PSP officers identified Ho as the suspect and told him to report to a police station for questioning later that night.
Cheuk said that as the officers could smell that Ho reeked of alcohol they conducted a breathalyser test with the test showing that Ho’s alcohol concentration was 1.02 grammes of alcohol per litre of blood. Ho told the police that he was driving passengers when he crashed into the rear of the parked car.
He claimed that the passengers urged him to leave the crash scene right away as they were keen to reach their destination as soon as possible, so he did not get out of his taxi to check what had happened. Ho insisted that he did not drink alcohol when he was on duty. He claimed that he had only drunk alcohol when he went home for dinner after work and later received a call from the police when he drove his taxi to report to the police station.
Ho was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) on Friday, facing charges of drunk driving and evading responsibility, according to Cheuk.
Public Security Police (PSP) spokesman Cheuk Kou Chi looks on during Monday’s press conference at the PSP press room.
