Cops crack down on unruly traffic

Monday, Feb 07, 2011




The law is finally taking its right course on Delhi roads. The traffic police are coming down hard on drivers even for minor offences, booking errant motorists under the Motor Vehicles Act.

In January alone, cops suspended 277 licences for drunk driving. At least 289 people were sent to jail in the past one month while 630 cases are facing trial for the same offence. "Compared to 550 challans for drunk driving in January last year, this year the number has shot up by three times to 1,807 challans. In at least five cases, offenders were sent to prison for more than 10 days, while three faced jail terms between six and nine days. Another 18 offenders got jail terms ranging between one and three days,'' said Satyendra Garg, joint commissioner of police (traffic).

This latest effort of the traffic police has been a success. "Compared to 26 fatal accidents involving cars in January 2010, only 19 cases involving cars were reported in January 2011. The total number of accidents has also seen a 10% decrease from 161 in January 2010 to 147 in January 2011," Garg said.

The number of prosecution of motorist for using tinted glass has also increased exponentially, up from 997 in January last year to 14,115 in January this year. There has also been a two-and-a-half-times increase in the number of prosecutions for defective number plates. The number has risen to 27,188 this year from 11,492 last year.

Prosecution for improper parking has also gone up. While 10,017 challans were issued in January last year, 11,986 challans were issued in January this year. A total of 33,943 motorcycles were checked in the same period while 76 have been impounded.

The traffic police claimed for the 27{+t}{+h} consecutive week there has been a fall in fatal accidents. However, in the case of cars the decline is marginal. "Last year, we had considerable success in checking road accidents as we had enforced strict lane driving and had even sent several such violators to jail. This helped in bringing down the number of fatal accidents by 10% from that of 2009. We now hope to cut down the number of fatal accidents even more,'' said Garg.

The joint commissioner of police said owners of cars with illegal red beacons were also prosecuted. "While there were no prosecution under this head last year, this year we have issued challans against 73 private vehicles belonging to MPs, MLAs, political leaders and even policemen for using red beacons illegally,'' said Garg.

Original news source http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Cops-crack-down-on-unruly-traffic/articleshow/7447395.cms