Hyderabad: Despite severe punishment by the courts, motorists seem unworried at the prospect of landing behind bars, and continue to drink and drive.
It would be possible to deter drunk driving if the law was enforced strictly, rather than allow individuals multiple violations. Police feel suspension of driving licence on first violation will go a long way to effective enforcement.
Close to 45,000 persons were caught so far this year for drunk driving in the Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda police commissionerates during traffic enforcement drives. At least a quarter of them (10,429) were jailed.
The traffic police has made little impact as the number errant drivers increase every year.
Remember the death of innocent nine-year-old Pammi Ramya? On July 1, 2016, Ramya, her mother Radhika, her uncle P. Rajesh, and her grandfather P. Madhusudhan Chary, were returning home from school when a speeding car driven by a drunk youngster had an accident and fell onto Ramya’s car on the other side of the road at Nagarjuna Circle. The youngster was returning from a party. Chary, Rajesh and Ramya lost their lives.
This incident forced the police to be more vigilant.
In 2018, about 47,000 persons were caught and around 10,500 persons were convicted and jailed. This year alone, the courts have cancelled 1,840 licences for multiple violations.
In an incident on Novem-ber 10 at Raidurgam, a drunken techie P. Abhilash rammed his car into six persons, including two youngsters taking selfies on the newly-constructed Raidurgam flyover. The youngsters were thrown off the flyover and died on the spot.
Cyberabad Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic), SM Vijay Kumar says that motorists violating road safety rules are not hesitant about paying penalties in court.
Following that they behave cautiously by avoiding the main roads to avoid the police.
Under section 19 of the Motor Vehicles Act, the licence-issuing authority has a provision to disqualify/suspend the license of a motorist for drunk driving, even if it is a first violation. Curr-ently, that is not happening, for some mysterious reason.
It is the courts that are suspending the license of the drivers caught for multiple drunk driving violations. “Suspending the license for drunk driving in the first instance, and not waiting for the motorist to repeat the offence may deter cases,” said the DCP.
