14 Nov 2013

Tahiti minister remains in office despite drink drive crash

6:13 am on 14 November 2013

The man in charge of road safety in French Polynesia remains in office despite crashing his car while under the influence of alcohol.

Bruno Marty, who is the transport minister, tendered his resignation but it has not been accepted.

Walter Zweifel reports.

"Bruno Marty ended up in hospital after running off the road on his way home on Friday night. After fronting last week's campaign to curb drink driving, he offered to resign. But the president, Gaston Flosse, has so far not accepted his resignation and downplayed the incident. Mr Flosse described the accident as normal given that Mr Marty had worked up to 18 hours a day and didn't have a driver. The opposition however says Mr Marty has to be sacked because he failed to make the right choice between drinking or driving."