Ludhiana: Pandemic puts brakes on drives to check speeding, drunk driving

LUDHIANA: Following the pandemic outbreak, traffic police not only stopped holding drives against drunk driving, but also against speeding. The city cops have only one speed radar to check the violation. Earlier, traffic cops were either deputed on Elevated Road or near Sahnewal to check speeding vehicles.
On Sunday night, two major accidents were reported from Dehlon and Division 6. In both the cases, speeding was the main cause of crashes and one of the accused was suspected driving drunk.
Assistant commissioner of police (traffic) Gurdev Singh said, “Due to Covid-19, the police had stopped using breath analyzers, as these may spread the virus. Drunk driving checks are not likely to start any time soon.”
About drives against speeding, he said, “Since there was a lockdown and restrictions on vehicle movement, we had stopped speeding checks. Now that the restrictions have been eased, we will soon restart the drives.”
A few years ago, then additional deputy commissioner of police (traffic) Sukhpal Singh Brar had asked the department to give more speed radars.
ACP Gurdev said he would follow up the matter to get more of these devices.