Hyderabad: In addition to drunken driving, licences of motorists will be suspended for repeat violation (twice) of traffic rules such as signal jumping, cellphone driving, over-speeding and overloading of vehicles with passengers and goods.
The drive to suspend licences will start from the last week of February. So far, the suspension of licences had been confined to only drunken driving and 81 licences have been suspended in the city. A large number of motorists have also been sent to jail for drunken driving.
Also, those caught driving during the three months of “driving licence suspension period”, will be prosecuted and be liable for imprisonment of up to three months. Those caught driving without a driving licence will also be prosecuted and jailed.
TS transport commissioner Sandeep Kumar Sultania and Hyderabad traffic additional commissioner of police Jitender said the provision for “suspension of driving licenses” has been there in the MV Act since 1989 and they have decided to enforce it strictly following directions from the Supreme Court-appointed committee on road safety.
Accidents kill more than murder
Stating that more people die in road accidents than are murdered, Hyderabad traffic ACP Jitender said at least there is a motive or reason behind every murder, but in case of road accidents it is mostly due to the negligence of the driver. “We will send the list of MV Act violators to the transport department and they will suspend the driving licence. All this is being done to bring down the accident rate and make roads safer to commute,” they said.
Traffic cops also said that cases of over speeding would be booked only on roads that have sign boards specifying the speed limit and speed guns installed. In case of over-loading of passengers, autos and even the RTC buses will be booked, in addition to commercial vehicles for overloading of goods.
