10,000 drove under the influence in city last year

  The Hyderabad traffic police has registered more than 10,000 cases since it launched a drive against drunken-driving in November last year.

As many as 10,277 cases were booked against drunken drivers from November 4, 2011 till November 3 this year, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) C V Anand told reporters in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
Cases were booked against as many as 6,901 two-wheeler riders, 469 three-wheeler and 2,839 four-wheeler drivers amongst other vehicle drivers, the senior traffic officer said. Police found that majority of the violators were in the age-group of 21-30 years with 4,670 cases and 31-40 years group saw registration of 3,503 cases.
As many as 3,674 cases were booked against blue collar workers, 2,864 cases against businessmen, 1,658 against private employees besides 1,463 cases were registered against software professionals, he explained. Those caught in the drunk-driving cases are fined between Rs 2,000-Rs 2,500 for each violation and also instructed to attend counseling classes.
Apart from plans to create a database of drunken drivers, the traffic police are also seeking to put in place stringent measures like imprisonment for habitual offenders and for cancellation of driving licenses, as a part of its steps against drunken driving.
Traffic police officers are being trained here as part of the global `Road Safety 2010' project (RS10) by the WHO, which is being implemented in Jalandhar and Hyderabad. To ensure effective drunken-driving enforcement, high- tech equipment is being provided to the police. During checking of drunk drivers, we use a standard operating procedure and every team follows the same.
Under provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act, we use breath analysers and if the reading of Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) is found above the 30 mg per 100 ml blood, it is considered drunk driving, Anand had said earlier.
It may be recalled that Tollywood star Nikhil Siddharth too was booked for drunken driving at Banjara Hills last November while returning from a party.
PTI