A majority of the party revellers preferred to book cabs and avoided driving while drunk on the New Year eve, leading to a fall in the number of challans issued for drunk driving this year, officials said on Tuesday. On the New Year eve of 2018, 765 people were penalised for drunk driving while this year the number stood at 509, of which 362 were drivers and 147 owners of the vehicles.
According to police, the awareness campaign which they had launched ahead of the New Year day played a crucial role in making people aware of the consequences of drunk driving. The police had warned that any incident of hooliganism and drunk driving would be dealt with strictly.
"We had put up posters of people behind bars after being caught by police in drink and driving cases. The posters also had pictures of accidents caused by drunk driving. On top of it, we had run radio jingles to make people aware of the perils of such behaviour," said a senior police officer.
In order to ensure that the people of the national capital celebrate a sober and happy New Year eve, police had adopted a zero tolerance policy towards drunk driving this year.
"As many as 15,000 police personnel were deployed who kept a close watch on the activities and ensured that the New Year celebrations went on smoothly. Special traffic arrangements were made to regulate the movement of revellers," said a senior police officer.
According to a senior traffic police officer, people preferred to take a driver or book a cab after the New Year eve celebrations.
"I had gone to a party in CP with my friends and I knew we would get drunk. So, we had decided that we would take a cab after the party to go home so that we reach home safely as our family members would be worried if we took our own cars. One should not drive after drinking," said Rohit Tulsiyan, a tax analyst.
The police said that they had adopted a zero tolerance policy towards drunk driving. Often, a large number of such cases are registered on the New Year eve.
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