In a big crackdown against drunk driving in Bengaluru, the traffic police have filed cases against 1,169 people in a special drive conducted on Saturday from 11 pm to 2 am on Sunday. The drive, conducted under the P Harishekaran, Additional Commissioner of Police, (Traffic), was conducted against riders and drivers driving under the influence of alcohol. The police also checked auto-rickshaws in the city and seized 63 auto-rickshaws that did not have display cards.
According to a TOI report, while usually around 80-100 checkpoints are checked on daily drives, Saturday’s checks were conducted at around 196 checkpoints across the city. Bengaluru Deputy Commissioner of Police, Traffic North Division, Sarah Fathima tweeted that 92 cases were registered from various places on Bellary Road alone. The maximum number of cases were booked in the west zone (519), followed by east (400), the report added.
The TOI report added that around 3,000 traffic police personnel, including four inspectors, seven ACPs and DCPs from every division, were deployed across important junctions and on the outskirts.
According to statistics, this is the highest number of cases booked in a single night. In 2017, Bengaluru saw a whopping 73,741 registered cases of drunk driving, with over 10,000 arrests in December 2017 itself. In 2018, in total, the Bengaluru traffic police had registered 53,092 cases of drunken driving. Till May 30, 2019, over 20,671 cases of drunken driving have been registered.
In Bengaluru, if a driver is caught driving a vehicle with alcohol in his/her blood exceeding 30 mg per 100 ml, or he/she is under the influence of a drug to such an extent that he/she is incapable of exercising proper control over the vehicle, he/she faces imprisonment up to 6 months or fine up to Rs 2,000. If the offence is repeated, the accused faces imprisonment up to 2 years or fine up to Rs 3,000, or both.