Hyderabad: Drunk drivers have free run during day

Hyderabad: While there is strict enforcement to prevent drunk driving at night, there is no vigil on drunk drivers during the day, which is also a major reason for daytime accidents.

The most recent incident involves a student, whose rash driving led to a car crash in which, Ramya, a Class III student, was declared brain dead. The driver, an engineering student responsible for the accident, was drunk.

Strict vigil at nights might be a reason that people are taking to daytime drinking. And bars offering discounts on alcohol during the day is also a reason, says the police, adding that special drives are now being conducted during the day too.

With cases involving drunk driving increasing, Hyderabad Police had started a drunken driving operation in June 2011. These would be conducted at identified spots usually from 10 pm to 12.30 am from Wednesday till the weekend. As a result the number of incidents had come down.

This, however, affected bars and pubs which used to operate only during the evenings. People also started avoiding drinking out at nights and if drunk, would take cabs to reach home. “Then people, especially the youth, started drinking during the day to avoid being caught as there are no drunken driving inspections during the day,” said a senior traffic police official.

Taking this as an opportunity, city pubs started lucrative offers during early evening hours. Youth, especially in the age group of 21-25, are making the best use of these “offers”.

“More people utilise ‘happy hour’ offers because they are economical and they finish early. It is an advantage for people who don’t want to party late nights and reach home early,” a city-based pub manager said. In some cases, where youth or students are not served alcohol during the day, they even purchase bottles to drink inside their vehicles. It’s simple; motorists are already drunk before a visit to the pub.

“They then get drunk at parking lots and enter pubs. When such people create nuisance, we will be in trouble, so we stopped serving  during the day,” another pub owner said.

Senior cops say that they had started raids during the day randomly from January 2015 and have been booking cases.