If Mumbai was bad, Bangalore is worse

If Mumbai was bad, Bangalore is worse

Bangalore with 38,665 cases in 2009 tops indian cities in drunk-driving violations

Soumya Menon. Bangalore



If you thought the Mumbai drunk driving shocker at Marine Lines on Sunday was bad, here's worse. Bangalore tops Indian cities for drunk-driving violations. The city, in fact, faces a higher probability of such mishaps.
DNA dug into traffic police records and found that Bangalore, in 2009, recorded 38,665 cases of drunk driving. Mumbai and New Delhi had 18,000 and 20,000 cases of such violation, respectively.
Surprised? There's more. The fine amount collected by the Bangalore traffic police for drunk driving in 2009 was a whopping Rs4 crore.
So what's the traffic police doing about it? "This (the rampancy of drunk driving cases) is one of the main reasons for us introducing Blackberry for all 700-odd police officers to check violations in the nights," said additional commissioner of police (traffic) Praveen Sood.
He said while 280 traffic police officers are using Blackberry in Bangalore, the rest 400-odd will have the facility within the next ten days. "We started booking people using Blackberry just two months ago, and there are already 5,000 cases. This is the reason for us to enforce Blackberry so that we can catch habitual offenders and imprison them. This will stop them," he said.
Sood still feels this is not enough. "Habitual drink-driving offenders should be imprisoned," he said.
"We have made our stand very clear. If a person has indulged in a fatal accident while under the influence of alcohol, it will not be construed as rash and negligent driving. It amounts to culpable homicide, not amounting to murder with intention," he said. "It is very clear that a driver under the influence of alcohol is aware that it could lead to a fatal accident."