Drunken driving causes 30 per cent mishaps on highways

Hyderabad: While traffic cops in the city have been regularly conducting drives against drunk driving, enforcement against motorists hitting the highways under the influence of alcohol is far from satisfactory. The state government has failed to remove or shift liquor shops on the highways and even dhabas continue to serve liquor. Also, the Road Transport Authority offices do not have sufficient staff or breath analysers to conduct intensified checks against drunken driving on highways.

Social activist V. Lakshma Reddy said though the Supreme Court committee on road safety had mandated that all liquor shops within 100 metres of highways should be shifted into interior lanes before December 31, 2015, it has not been done in Telangana. Every year, over 20,000 accidents occur on highways in the state, killing around 7,000 people. Nearly 30 per cent of these deaths are due to drunk driving.

Traffic and transport experts said that drunk driving on highways cannot be checked by RTA alone. “It has to be a coordinated effort by officials of Excise, transport, police, medical and health to name a few,” said traffic and transport expert Professor P.R. Bhanu Murthy of JNTU. Joint transport commissioner B. Venkateshwarlu said they had intensified checks on highways for drunk drivers.

“While 55,000-odd cases were booked in 2015, we have booked 2.67 lakh cases against drunk driving in the first five months this year. This we are doing with the help of the State Road Safety Authority, police and other government departments. Coordination between the departments has impr-oved,” Mr Venkateshwarlu added.