Drink driving: State plans to cancel licences of offenders
Home Minister R R Patil said on Monday that the government is considering cancelling driving licences of people caught for drink driving.
Quoting figures of 860 cases registered for drink driving in Mumbai on New Year’s Eve, Patil said steps would need to be taken to ensure that number of drink driving cases are reduced. “We are thinking of permanently canceling licences if people are found driving under the influence of alcohol. It is not just the cause of concern for their life but also for innocents on the roads,” said Patil.
According to the Home Department, road accidents caused 13,000 deaths last year. Patil said a decade ago death due to natural causes was the leading cause of death in the state. This was followed by deaths due to water borne infections. The situation has changed drastically in the last decade with deaths in accidents becoming the second highest cause of death. Moreover, the deaths are mostly in the age group of 18-25, added Patil. The Home Ministry will suggest the school and higher education department to introduce a syllabus regarding road safety in the curriculum to inculcate good habits in the youths, said Patil.
Patil said 70 per cent deaths in accidents were due to driver’s faults, flouting of traffic rules and drink driving and remaining due to faulty signal systems, poor quality of roads, old vehicles and climatic conditions. Over the last three years, since the traffic police launched a drive against drink driving, 57,000 cases had been registered in Mumbai alone, he said, adding that the state has increased the fine three-fold in the last year.
The traffic police in Mumbai had installed over 100 CCTV cameras at prominent traffic junctions and another 350 were in the pipeline. “Bangalore has implemented a smart CCTV system which has helped reduce accidents by 70 per cent. After the current road safety drive, we will be visiting Bangalore to study the system,” said Minister of State for Home Satej Patil.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan assured the state transport department that the department’s plea for filling 900 vacancies would be cleared at the earliest.
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“On an average, there is a 2 per cent rise in the automobiles in the country, but the accident rate has grown by 6 per cent. Many a time, it is the driver’s fault,” the CM said.