Strict vigil after dusk till the wee hours has netted several thousand offenders and many millions of rupees in penalties.
MUMBAI: Mumbai's rash and reckless drivers have been put on notice as police in the country's financial and entertainment capital, reputed for enforcing traffic discipline with military toughness, have got even tougher these days.
Strict vigil after dusk till the wee hours has netted several thousand offenders and many millions of rupees in penalties. Hundreds more have spent simple terms in jail or had their licences suspended, having a sobering effect on most offenders.
Even the drunken brats of VIPs and VVIPs are not spared; celeb status or high connections do not count.
The targets are manifold, drunken driving, speeding, jumping traffic signals and driving without taillights, brake lights or indicator lights.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Shahaji Solunke said the traffic police consider drunken rivers as 'the single biggest menace' on the roads, responsible for many fatal accidents.
"This intensive campaign against persons driving under the influence of alcohol, speeding, reckless driving, or driving vehicles without tail lights has definitely reduced fatal accidents on Mumbai roads and highways. People are feeling a lot safer on the roads, especially women, children and senior citizens," Solunke said.
Armed with 50 breathalysers, the Mumbai traffic police have since Jan 1 nabbed 9,783 people driving under the influence of alcohol, 8,500 of them between mid-June and mid-November.
While less serious offences netted the Maharashtra government a fine of over Rs.15 million, 1,723 people accused of serious traffic rules violations served simple jail terms ranging from a day to a week, Solunke said.
He said that as per the Motor Vehicles Act, any person detected with more than 30 mg of alcohol in 100 ml of blood is unfit to drive any vehicle and can be prosecuted.
During the period between mid-June and mid-November, 282 people were booked for over-speeding and 870 more for rash driving. Of these, 40 spent varying periods in jail. A total of nearly 1,800 have had their driver's license suspended for these offences.
Solunke said more was in store for rash drivers or those speeding beyond the permissible limits, 30-40 kmph in Mumbai and 80 kmph on the highways.
Such measures are expected to reduce the number of road accidents in the metropolis that has a vehicle population of nearly 1.5 million, and growing at the rate of over 100 per day.
Leading traffic safety crusader and Chandmal Parmar said that the road accident figures compiled by the central government are shocking.
"The latest figures available, for April 2004-March 2005, showed 583,000 road accidents in India involving 15,24,000 victims. Of these, 1,05,000 were killed, and 3,86,000 maimed for life. As many as 66 percent of the victims were sole bread winners in their families," Parmar, chairman of the Kumari Rajshree Parmar Memorial Foundation, said.
At least 60 percent of the fatal accidents occurred on the state and national highways and 20 percent of all fatal accidents involved vehicles without taillights, brake and indicator lights and reflectors.
Such vehicles have been targeted in a latest drive launched last week. Solunke said that in just five days, 2,760 such cases were booked and fined a nominal Rs.100 each. They were also asked to repair or replace the defective or missing lights.
"A second time offence will lead to the driver's licence being suspended, and we are exploring options to enhance the penalties for these offences," he warned.
Efforts to enforce traffic discipline have deterred many a tippler from taking to the wheels after drinking.
"Many hotels have now started offering driver services specially to drop customers safely home after they have had their fill but are wary of driving," said Sudhakar Shetty, proprietor of the Avenues group of hotels in north Mumbai.
Last week, P. Sathyadas, an NRI from Abu Dhabi who attended several late night parties here, was happy sipping mock-tails or juices. "I cannot take any chances. Either I fall in line or go to jail," he said, raising his mock-tail glass in a hearty cheer.
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