Police crack down on underage drivers in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: The increasing number of underage drivers on the city’s roads has become a matter of major concern.

Under Hyderabad commissionerate limits alone, in five months over 80 youngsters, aged between 10 and 20, have met with accidents, most of them being underage drivers.

Meanwhile, under Cyberabad police station limits, the traffic cops book more than 50 cases every day against teenage drivers.

The gravity of the issue is so grave that Cyberabad traffic cops say sometimes more than 100 cases are booked against underage drivers on a daily basis.

Police officials say if a special drive is conducted for a period of six months, at least 50,000 teenagers will be caught on city roads.

Though the Hyderabad police had conducted special drives to catch these teenagers in 2013, nothing has been done this year.

“We have not carried out a special drive to catch the errant teenagers. However, when we carry out other checks, we make sure that we fine the youngsters driving without a license,” said a senior traffic police official.

The Cyberabad traffic police, however, has taken the issue more seriously.

“We book at least 50 to 100 cases every day against such drivers. Whenever we catch them, we do not let them go with just a fine. We detain the vehicle at the spot, call their parents to the police stations, and fine them both. The underage driver has to pay a fine for driving without a license, and the parents have to pay a penalty for letting the driver use the vehicle. The parents and the young driver are given proper counseling before being let off,” said Cyberabad Traffic DCP, Avinash Mohanty.

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Police records show that more than 95 per cent of the teenagers drive two-wheelers and these are the most accident-prone vehicles.

Another dangerous trend that the police point out is that most of these teenager drivers indulge in triple riding.

Bike racing is another menace these underage drivers are involved in.

Narsingi police had arrested as many as 83 youngsters two months ago for doing bike stunts at Gandipet road, on the banks of Osman Sagar.

Similarly, Jubilee Hills and Cyberabad police had arrested a few other youngsters for the same.