Visakhapatnam: The rate of court convictions for drunken driving cases in Vizag has touched a new high in 2017. Of the total of 361 motorists, who were sentenced to 3 to 15 days imprisonment in between January and October this year, 90 percent are first time drunk driving offenders and they largely belong to the 25-40 years age group.
The conviction in drunken driving cases in 2013 was only 31 and the fine collected was Rs 77.17 lakh from 7,774 cases. In 2014, the fine collected was nearly Rs 1 crore and 208 persons were convicted out of 10,115 cases. In 2015, there were no convictions from 17,956 cases. In 2016, city traffic cops fined as many as 20,000 people over Rs 1.5 crore and 44 were convicted. In the first 10 months of 2017 alone, local courts have sentenced 361 people to jail and imposed a fine of Rs 1.72 crore in as many as 23,381 cases. ADCP (Traffic) K. Mahendra Patrudu said that though they have managed to instill fear among tipsy drivers by conducting drives against drunken driving, there is no drop in the number of drunken driving cases in the city.
The number of repeat offenders has come down but, the number of first time drunk driving offenders has increased. According to our analysis, 10 percent of the 361 motorists, who faced a jail term for drunken driving in 2017 are repeated offenders whereas 90 percent of the convicted offenders are caught for the first time. This year some tipplers performed traffic duties under the hot sun at various places in the city for mixing a drink in a drive following court orders, he added.
“We are hoping that the increasing convictions for tipsy driving will bring fear among the motorists in the coming days as Vizag city has won the dubious distinction of recording the maximum number of drunken driving cases in Andhra Pradesh said ACP (Traffic), K. Prabhakar.
Rash driving and drunken driving is the most common offences for which driving license have been suspended in Vizag region in the past one year. In fact, of the 1,000 driving licenses suspended in Vizag region since in the past one year, in over 400 or nearly 40 percent of the cases, the motorists were either driving under the influence of spirit or indulged in rash driving said Deputy Transport Commissioner (DTC), S Venkateswara Rao.
