Hyderabad: Following several incidents of school bus drivers caught in a drunken state, the Hyderabad traffic police have started insisting that school managements should carry out the breath analyzer test on drivers every day, to curb the menace of drunken driving.
Recently, there were instances where school bus drivers were caught driving the bus under the influence of alcohol. The traffic police have given a directive to schools and told them not to allow a drunk driver to take the wheel.
As a part of creating awareness for 5 lakh children in the city, the traffic police have been conducting traffic awareness programs in different city schools. Additional DCP (Traffic) T. Amarkanth Reddy said, “If the driver is caught for the first time and is driving with a 100-150 blood alcohol content (BAC) we will ensure that he lands in jail. If he is caught again with more than the legal limit of 35 BAC, we will make sure that he stays in jail for about a week or 20 days.”
“We are getting in touch with school managements and warning them that we will inform the parents about the same during parent-teacher meetings. We have instructed them to give us information about such meetings. All the sub-inspectors and the Assistant Commissioner were involved in educating schools about the importance of traffic rules and keeping checks on school bus drivers,” added Reddy.
To ensure the safety of school children on the streets, traffic police personnel also interacted with various school bus drivers.
Vinod Kumar Kanumala from the Indian Federation of Road Safety said, “There is a lack of enforcement on the part of the government. The traffic police should conduct drunken driving checks more frequently. There are several instances where we find school bus drivers, ambulance drivers and public transport vehicle drivers inebriated.”
It is not only the responsibility of the government department but also parents and passengers should check whether the particular driver is inebriated or not.”
The government should also try to experiment with the timings of the belt/wine shops by minimizing their timings. There is also a need for establishing permanent check points to regulate these traffic violators, added Kanumala.
