Over 1k licences suspended between Jan ’17 & Feb ’18, most for drunk driving

Licenses of more than 1,000 drivers in the city have been suspended between January 2017 and February 2018, shows data available with the state Road Transport Authority (RTA). Most of the suspensions, the data reveals, has been for drunk driving offence — a high 567. As it turns out, 1,051 drivers’ licenses were suspended during this period from across all five zones of Hyderabad, with 273 licenses suspended within the first two months alone for various offences such as overloading of vehicles, drunk driving, speed violations, cell-phone driving, signal jumping, accident cases, carrying passengers in goods vehicles, triple riding and for carrying projections on either side of the vehicle.

Panduranga Naik, joint transport commissioner, Hyderabad, pointed out while maximum number of licenses were suspended for drunk driving offence, the central (288) and south zones (271) accounted for highest number of suspension of licenses.

Out of the total number of driving licenses suspended this year, a clear majority of cases (201) pertain to drunk driving, followed by accident cases caused due to ‘rash and negligent’ acts, shows data provided RTA officials. According to top traffic cops, it was in 2017 that drunk driving courts began suspending a significant number of licenses, while taking the high Blood Alcohol Content levels of the accused into consideration.

In 2017 alone, 366 licenses were suspended within Hyderabad limits for drunk driving. Data provided by Hyderabad traffic police department shows drunk driving cases have shown a worrying year-onyear hike since 2014. From a total of 17,375 drunk driving cases booked in 2016, cops booked more than 20,411cases by end of 2017. “Transport authorities have stepped up action in terms of suspending driving licenses for serious traffic violations. People will now become more cautious and will take drunk driving and other safetyrelated traffic violations seriously,” said Vinod K Kanumala, CEO of Indian Federation of Road Safety.

Data shows 47 licenses were suspended for causing accidents through rash or negligent acts in the first two months of 2018, while eight licenses were suspended for overloading vehicles. In the same time, five licenses were suspended for talking on cell phone while driving and 12 more licences were suspended for carrying passengers in goods vehicles.

SOURCE BY DW NEWS HYD