997 drunk drivers booked on December 31-January 1 night

PUNE: During the crackdown on drunk drivers on the New Years’ Eve, the traffic police took action against 997 motorists — 873 in Pune and 124 in Pimpri Chinchwad — for driving vehicles under the influence of alcohol. No fatal or serious accidents were reported. Last year, 1,144 drivers were booked on the intervening night of December 31, 2017, and January 1, 2018. Of them, 807 were in Pune and the remaining 337 in Pimpri Chinchwad.

This year, within the Pune police commissionerate, the traffic police divisions in Yerawada (102), Dattawadi (87) and Koregaon Park (76) had booked the highest number of drunk drivers. In the Pimpri Chinchwad Police Commissionerate, most drunk drivers were caught in Hinjewadi (53), Pimpri (16) and Bhosari (14).


“The operation against drunk driving went off smoothly. There were no reports of fatal or serious accidents. We have achieved a major success,” said Tejaswi Satpute, DCP (traffic) of Pune police. “The drive was successful because we had started it 10 days ahead of the New Year’s Eve and we spread a lot of awareness among the public,” she added.

“The chargesheets in the drunk and drive cases will be filed under section 185 of the Motor Vehicles Act at the Motor Vehicles Court. We will also submit a proposal to the Regional Transport Office, Pune, to suspend the driving licences of such motorists for six months under section 19 of the Act. The court has powers to suspend licences under section 20 of the Act as well,” said Jaggannath Kalaskar, senior inspector (traffic planner).

Satpute said the vehicles and the driving licences of all motorists found driving under the influence of alcohol were seized. “We have decided to return the vehicles to the relatives of these motorists. This is to deter them from drunk driving again on the city roads.”

On the breath analysers developing problems, Satpute said, “We had deployed 58 officers and 650 policemen at 59 nakabandi points, and had distributed 59 breath analysers, including the 25 new ones given by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). Some of the machines had some technical problems and were ‘hanging’. We had to keep switching them off and on. That consumed a lot of time. We will now take up the matter with the machine manufacturers to rectify defects. Soon, we will receive 75 more breath analysers from the PMC.”

“On New Years’ Eve in 2017, the Pune police commissionerate had booked 807 drunk driving cases. In 2018, we have registered 873 cases,” Satpute said.

Assistant inspector Santosh Gore, the incharge of the Yerawada traffic police division, said, “We took action against 102 drunk drivers at Shastrinagar Chowk and Mental hospital corner. We had started the drive at 7.30pm and had only finished by 3am. An adequate number of barricades had been installed. We ensured that the motorists found driving under the influence of liquor did not go scot free. Breathalyser tests revealed some motorists’ alcohol intake between 80mg and 212 mg.” The permissible blood alcohol limit is 30mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood.

However, TOI found the drive had not started even at 9pm at most places because the cops were busy manning the traffic. Incidents relating to triple-seat riding and wrong-side driving were rampant.

Many motorists were also arguing with the police on being repeatedly stopped at junctions and chowks and subjected to breathalyser tests. Some motorists, however, managed to take U-turns and flee. Most of the vehicles stopped were two-wheelers as stopping the four-wheelers was creating traffic congestions. The action against the motorists gained momentum after the crowd started dispering after 1am.