This age group isn't bothered about their families or even pedestrians: Traffic cops.
Not only has 2013 seen more number of drink-driving cases compared with last year, when 14,133 were caught, but also, this year, more than 69% of those booked for driving drunk were aged between 21 and 35, official numbers show.
The statistics provided by the Mumbai traffic police revealed that a total of 14,903 drunk drivers have been booked till December 27 this year. Among them, 10,350 were in the age group 21 to 30 years, 3,928 in the age group 36 to 50 years and 478 in the age group 51 to 58 years.
The silver lining, however, was the youngsters, aged between 18 and 20, with only 147 of them caught in drink-driving cases this year, ie less than 1%.
Joint commissioner of police (traffic) Vivek Phansalkar had some special words of praise for the 18-20 age group. “It’s assumed that those in this age group will take even more risks and violate traffic rules more than the other age groups. However, we have associated with the Rotary Club and organised several awareness programmes in 65 colleges across the city from time to time over the past three years. Hence, a majority of them decided to stay off drinking and driving,” said Phansalkar.
According to him, those in the age group 21 to 35 years have a tendency to take risks without bothering about their families or even the pedestrians. This not only puts their lives in danger but also those of others, he added.
The traffic police’s drink-driving campaign was started in June 2007 after several fatal accidents in the city due to people driving under the influence of alcohol. Since then, the police have registered 1,04,197 cases, till December 27, 2013. While 52,076 drunk drivers have been sent to jail, licences of 44,363 have been suspended. The court has also collected a total fine of more than Rs21 crore.
Tipsy and out on the city’s streets
32%, ie 4,846 of the total 14,903 drunk drivers booked this year, were caught driving without their licence
Vehicle break-up of 2013
9,685 2-wheelers
4,426 cars
348 3-wheelers
219 tempos
106 trucks
39 buses
80 dumpers
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