In Bangalore, using cellphone at wheel could cost you your licence….Saritha Rai
Bangalore is set to become the countrys first city where repeat offenders could lose their licence for using a cellphone while driving.
Under the stringent measures coming into force in the next few weeks, Bangalore police will be allowed to revoke licences of those who break the get-off-your-phone-while-driving rule the third time. After fatal accidents and drunken driving, using cellphones while driving would be the third offence for which police will retract driving licences.
In the first nine months of this year, Blackberry-wielding police officers in Bangalore recorded 84,000 cases of cellphone use while driving, against 90,000 in 2010. Many were caught after clinching evidence provided by the 180 video surveillance traffic police cameras spanning the city.
India currently has 866 million mobile phone users, just behind China. The countrys teledensity is 74.96 per cent, or nearly 75 connections per 100 people.
Motorists who drive and talk are endangering the lives of others, and studies show talking and driving is as hazardous as drunken driving, M A Saleem, Additional Commissioner of Police, traffic, said. Research has shown cellphone users to have dramatically slower reaction times.
A variety of other establishments in Bangalore are also nixing cellphones. M S Ramaiah Medical College and Hospital has banned cellphone usage by its students and house surgeons in classrooms and clinics. A student can be suspended for a third offence, said Dr Saraswathi Rao, principal of the college. While other colleges too have banned usage inside classrooms, administrators say they cannot police students in other parts of the campus.