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| Drunk drivers wreak havoc on roads | | |
PankhuriAggarwal
Jammu, Oct 14: Drunk drivers are responsible for alarming increase in accidents and deaths. The statistics furnished by the traffic police prove this.
According to Jammu traffic police data, a total of 1033 people were killed in 2009, while 7562 were injured in 5940 road accidents in the state. In the following year (2010), data reveals, 2945 people were killed. The total number of deaths recorded in 2007 and 2008 were 933 and 919 respectively.
Vikram Khajuria, a senior traffic police officer said, "In most states, including Jammu, the permissible blood alcohol limit is around 0.05%. But we come across thirty to forty-five cases of drunken driving in a month and the limit of blood alcohol ranges to 0.08% or in most extreme cases even one to two percent."
He added "drunken driving is an offence that may cost the driver his driving license. In Jammu, punishment for the first offence for 'driving under influence' of alcohol is six months or a fine of Rs. 3000. If a driver gets caught within three years, he or she could get up to two years in jail or Rs. 4000-5000 fines."
The Jammu traffic police have adopted a new method known as "spring-a-surprise" method on revelers to apprehend drunk drivers. Under this method nakabandis are conducted between 10 pm to 1 am every night. Two locations at every traffic division have been identified for the drive, but the teams will not station themselves at the same spots every day.
They will rotate from one spot to another. For instance, if the drive is conducted on Akhnoor road one day, it will be held on BC road another day and each division is provided with two alcohol detectors. "Sometimes we have it pretty tough while handling the offenders. Most refuse to admit that they are at fault. They throw tantrums or drop names, sometimes even threatening our constables. There have been instances when offenders had misbehaved with our traffic policeman and got into fight with them", said a traffic police officer.
Shivam Gupta, another officer said, "The idea of punishment is to reform people." He even suggested a point system for repeat offences and revocation of licenses. The only practical difficultly with this idea is that the traffic records are still not computerized and hence it is difficult to track the offender and the multiple offences. In Jammu, given the high death rate due to drunk driving, there is a growing demand from activist and legal experts for a more stringent law for driving under influence of alcohol or DUI offences. |
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