The Hyderabad City Police will be conducting alcohol checks between midnight and 3 am due to a rise in road accidents caused by drunk drivers. Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) G Sudheer Babu reported that the traffic police stations were told to hold frequent checking in late night hours. Special teams are identifying hot spots where road accidents involving drunk drivers have occurred and conducting the checks. If caught, those driving in an inebriated condition will be booked and produced before the court, and they have to attend a counselling programme at Traffic Training Institute at Goshamahal and Begumpet.
The police have identified several hot spots in the city where there is a large number of drunk drivers due to the presence of hotels, bars, and pubs. The entire exercise of drunk driving checking is video graphed so as to counter allegations from those caught. In certain cases, people have been caught misbehaving with the traffic police officials and have been booked under appropriate cases at the local law and order police stations.
The Hyderabad traffic police have caught 13,431 persons for driving in an inebriated condition so far this year, and 1,317 persons were sent to jail. The driving licenses of 243 persons were suspended, and licenses of 53 persons were permanently canceled by the road transport authority officials following court orders. A total fine of Rs 3,21,39,060 has been imposed on persons who were booked for drunken driving.
The message is clear that the traffic police are vigilant round the clock, and people should not be under the impression that they can escape if they come out and drive after midnight.
