Hyderabad: Drunk drivers make a fuss, try evading cops

Hyderabad: Despite at least 40,000 motorists being booked for drunk driving and 21,000 getting convicted in just one year, little change has been observed in the attitude of motorists in the matter of abiding by traffic rules. Data with the traffic police of the three commissionerates in the city shows a steep rise in the cases of drunk driving.

Adding to this, the ruckus created by the persons caught during the enforcement drives is creating more trouble to the traffic police. In the last three days, there have been incidents of drunk motorists creating a nuisance on the roads when intercepted by the traffic police to conduct breathalyser checks.

Two days ago, a few women who were caught drunk driving entered into an argument and did not cooperate with the traffic police who wanted to run a BAC (Blood Alcohol Content) test on them. On Thursday, a similar incident took place at Madhapur, where an actor and his girlfriend created a ruckus on the road and also at the police station when detained for causing a road accident in the drunken condition.

A similar incident was seen on Saturday night at Banjara Hills, where a few women intercepted for drunk driving checks got into arguments with the police. The highest BAC was recorded as 536 mg/100 ml for a woman driver. In August this year, a drunk man tried to escape from the enforcement drive and broke his leg in his hurry.

Recollecting an incident last week, Jubilee Hills traffic inspector K. Naveen Kumar said. “Drunk motorists behave in a funny manner a few times and some get really angry. One motorist caught at Jubilee Hills was asking the traffic personnel to spell the words like ‘government’, ‘constitution’ and some others, questioning the authority of the police to catch drunk motorists. At certain times, the motorists do not take the breathalyser checks and tried to run away or indulged in fights with the police.”

Responding to a question, the official said “Before being posted in the traffic department, the personnel are given adequate training to handle drunk drivers. A one-week training is given about the behaviour and psychology of a drunk driver and the methods to handle them.”

In Hyderabad city, as many as 23,054 drunk drivers have been caught so far this year while in 2017 the number was 20,811. The Cyberabad traffic police caught 12,736 persons for drunk driving and 3,333 were convicted till October this year, while the number of cases registered last year was 13,220. In Rachakonda commissionerate, cases were booked against 5,210 drunk drivers of whom 697 were convicted so far this year.