586 booked for drunk driving in a single day!

Hyderabad: Friday night saw as many as 586 persons being booked by the city traffic police for driving under the influence of alcohol in the city limits. This was part of the special drive taken by the police.

They deployed 50 teams, who checked approximately 5,998 drivers and found 586 of them under the influence of alcohol.

The special drives were conducted up to 1am of Saturday at 50 select spots in the city. The initiative was aimed at preventing occurrence of more accidents due to personal negligence or due to drunken driving.

All SIs, Inspectors, ACPs, Addl. DCPs of Traffic branch formed into 50 teams under the leadership of L.S. Chowhan, DCP Traffic-I, Hyderabad, and K. Babu Rao, DCP Traffic-II, Hyderabad.

Apart from traffic personnel, six platoons consisting 120 ranks of city armed reserve police also participated in this drive. Each team conducted enforcement against drunk driving, including lorries, water tankers, buses, JCBs and DCM vans.

Among those searched included 3,414 two-wheelers, 435 three-wheelers,1,632 cars,186 lorries,184 buses, 52 mini buses, 12 tipplers and 73 other vehicles.

A driver of Bharathi Travels travelling from Bengaluru to Hyderabad carrying passengers was found to be under influence of alcohol. According to traffic officials, during the breath analyzing test it was found that he was stone drunk and his BAC reading was 202 mg., which is very high. The officers on duty spoke to their management and asked them to arrange another bus for the safety and convenience of the passengers.

City traffic police instructed the long route bus operators to regularly check their drivers using breath analyzer and not deploy such drivers as it risks the life of many citizens.

Hyderabad Traffic Police has booked 25,915 cases against drunk drivers this year. Of them, 4,260 were imprisoned and 21,655 fined by 3rd and 4th MM Courts, Nampally, Hyderabad. Among the 586 drivers booked were 394 two-wheelers, 38 three-wheelers, 148 cars and six other vehicles.

Addl. Commissioner of Police, Traffic, Hyderabad Mr Anil Kumar exhorted citizens not to drive vehicles after consuming alcohol.