The Hyderabad Traffic Police were in for a shock on Thursday after they found a heavily inebriated auto driver, ferrying as many as 9 school children in his vehicle.
The driver was nabbed at around 8:30 am, when the children were on their way to school and the police said that after a breath analyser test, his blood alcohol content (BAC) count was a whopping 228 mg/100 ml.
The permissible alcohol limit according to the city police is 30 mg/100 ml of blood, i.e. 30 micrograms/100 ml of blood. Anything above that, as recorded by a breath analyser, is considered drunken driving.
The accused was identified as 35-year-old Chandrayangutta resident Mohd Jalal, who was driving the students to Koti.
The police seized the vehicle and also informed the parents of the children about the incident.
The police were conducting a special drive against auto rickshaws carrying school children after the start of the academic year and registered 130 cases.
“From now on we will do it throughout the year. We have given clear instructions to the parents and schools authorities to send their children in a proper vehicle which has a fitness certificate,” additional traffic commissioner, Hyderabad, Anil Kumar, told reporters.
Drunken driving continues to be on the rise in Hyderabad as 1,699 persons were sent to prison by the Hyderabad Traffic Police in the first four months of the year alone.
The officials filed 9,648 chargesheets and imposed fines amounting to Rs 2.53 crore during the same period.
The driving licenses of 681 people suspended by various courts for periods ranging from three months to five years. 69 driving licenses were cancelled until April after the owners were caught driving drunk.
Despite steps taken by the officials, the number of cases is steadily on the rise. In 2017, 20,811 chargesheets were filed — an increase of 3,359 chargesheets as compared to 2016.