Bengaluru police resume checks for drunk driving, 44 people booked in a day

With the pandemic still around, instead of breath analysers, the checks are being conducted via blood tests.
Representative image of police checking for drunk driving
Representative image of police checking for drunk driving
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Drink-and-drive checks, which were halted as a precaution during the COVID-19 pandemic, have resumed in Bengaluru. However, with the pandemic still around, instead of breath analysers, the checks are being conducted via blood tests, reported the Times of India. The checks began on Friday night (September 17) and between 9.30 pm to midnight, 46 people have been booked, reports said. The police also registered around 1,400 cases against people for rash driving, performing stunts, over speeding etc, reported The Hindu

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) told TOI that during routine checks, if a police official smells alcohol on the drivers, they are taken to a government hospital where a blood test is conducted. If the test result returns positive for alcohol consumption, a case is registered against them. Their vehicles and licenses are also seized by the police.

These drunk driving checks had been stopped 18 months ago owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. They were to be resumed earlier this year, but the second wave of the pandemic hit. Now, as the situation improves, the checks have been started again.

The police have stepped up these checks in the city, especially during the night, after two fatal accidents in the city in the recent past. The police have also been deployed at various checkpoints in the city to ensure the night curfew in place in the city is followed. The victims were identified as Pitham Kumar (30), and Kritika Raman (28), who both hailed from Tamil Nadu.

On August 31, seven people, including the son of a Tamil Nadu MLA, were killed after their Audi Q3 crashed into a building’s compound wall in Bengaluru’s Koramangala. The fatal car crash was caught on CCTV and showed that the Audi Q3 was being driven at an extremely high speed. It is not ascertained yet whether the driver of the car was under the influence of alcohol, as forensic reports have not been released yet.

In the second incident, reported on September 14, a man and woman were killed after being thrown off Bengaluru’s Electronic City flyover when a speeding car hit them.

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