Vehicle checks to detect drunk driving are yet to see a revival in the city and the rural as the police are unable to use breath analyser (breathalyser) due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Police officers said that use of breathalyser was stopped in March when the pandemic hit the State, following which orders came from Chennai to avoid the device.
Apart from using breathalysers, the police also used to follow the practice of asking suspected drivers to blow air to check the smell of alcohol.
Officials said that both methods are not followed since March as COVID-19 spreads through respiratory droplets.
Coimbatore District (Rural) Superintendent of Police Ara. Arularasu said that the rural police have been taking suspected drivers to hospitals to detect drunk driving for the last two months as breathalysers cannot be used.
He said that medical test is done for persons whom the personnel involved in vehicle checks find visibly drunk.
Recently, a doctor who created ruckus at Pollachi was taken to a hospital where he was found drunk and later arrested.
R. Mutharasu, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Coimbatore City Police, said that checks on drunk driving in city limits were stopped mid-March.
“City police subjected some persons for medical check-up to identify drunk driving in a few important cases. Normal checking using breathalyser will be resumed only when we get orders from Chennai,” he said.
Police sources said that the personnel who conduct vehicle checks now slap fine for rash driving on persons, who they find visibly drunk and from the smell of alcohol.
They said that several cases of drunk driving might be going undetected as breathalyser cannot be used.
In 2019, Coimbatore city police had booked 16,457 persons for drunk driving and stood second in the State, next to Chennai, for registering the maximum number of cases involving driving under the influence of alcohol.