Drunk drivers leave vehicles at police stations

Hyderabad: The fear of being jailed is keeping many drunken drivers from claiming their vehicles. When drunk drivers are caught, their vehicles are seized by traffic cops and returned only after the drivers visit the court and attend counselling sessions.

Recently, the traffic cops disposed of 850 pending cases after the offenders were counselled to come to a specially-organised Lok Adalat for disposing of the cases.
According to details from the Hyderabad traffic police, up to June 2015, 6,647 cases of drunken driving were registered. Of these, 909 drivers were imprisoned including a couple of women drivers.

Since the jail term of one to 15 days is becoming increasingly regular, the fear of being jailed has led many to steer clear from claiming their vehicles. The longest jail term for drunken driving, so far has been 30 days.

According to the rule, Blood Alcohol Content  up to 30 mg is permissible, and only people found to have over 30 BAC are caught for drunken driving and a case is booked.

Generally, in case of lower BAC levels being detected, the drunken driver is let off with a fine. Repeat offenders and those with higher BAC levels are usually being sent to jail. The final decision depends on the metropolitan magistrate.

“In many cases, people do not come back to collect the vehicles for weeks and months together. This has led to a build up of pending cases. A major chunk of these cases were recently cleared and the vehicles returned to 850 offenders. The fear of being sent to jail has percolated and when caught, many avoid claiming their vehicles,” said P. Srinivas,  inspector, Traffic Training Institute.