New Year's Eve sees 30 per cent less drunk drivers

Mumbai: The city’s traffic police registered 565 cases of drunken driving, 13 cases of rash driving, 207 cases of riding without helmets and 692 cases of illegal parking on New Year’s Eve, the night intervening Saturday and Sunday.

According to police officials, there is a 30 per cent decline in the figure for drunk driving in 2016 as compared to 2015, when the number was 705. Officials said the decline in the number of cases of drunken driving detected by the traffic police was due to the awareness drive undertaken by the department over the last three months. The Thane traffic police also reported a decline of 30 per cent in cases of drunken driving detected by it on New Year’s Eve as compared to the corresponding figures in 2015, sources said. The Thane police detected 775 cases of drunken driving on Saturday, while the figure for 2015 was 597.

Around 30,000 police personnel, including 2,000 from the traffic police department, were on patrol duty in Mumbai on Friday and Saturday. Commenting about the decline in drunk-driving cases, traffic police inspector S. Koregaokar said, “We have been running an awareness drive requesting motorists to refrain from drunken driving, as part of the campaign titled ‘Do not drink and drive’, for the last three months.”

He added, “Awareness messages were being consistently sent on social media, and meetings were also organised with several social and community centres.” Mr Koregaokar also said, “We had also put up hoardings carrying such messages, and kept a strict check on the roads over the past three weeks. People were thus aware that the surveillance to curb drunk-driving cases around New Year’s Eve would be conducted strongly. It is due to this increased awareness that the numbers have declined.”

The punishment for drunk driving is either a penalty of up to Rs 2,000 or six months imprisonment or both. Other than drunk driving, the police registered 1,412 cases of people driving without helmets, not wearing seat belts and in other categories. The Thane police collected around Rs 45,1900 in fines from the public. Around 650 men in uniform were present at various checkpoint from 4 pm on Saturday to 5.30 am on Sunday.