Indian Road rules, titled “Rules of Road Regulation”, were brought into effect since July, 1989. These rules are germane to the Indian drivers (all inclusive of two, three and four wheelers), while on the road to ensure an orderly traffic and a safer journey. Violation of these “Rules of Road Regulation” is a punishable transgression as per the city specific traffic police rules and the “Motor Vehicles Act”.
Enforcement of these traffic laws – rules, regulations and acts – can bear out the road accidents. These laws are enforced by issuing challans in the name of the offenders and teaching them a lesson by making them pay penalties. An indicative list of the possible offences and their respective penalties is formulated below:
A random survey conducted by traffic police on drunk drivers in the city has revealed that a majority of those jailed this year were young, educated and driving private vehicles.
In the random survey of drivers caught drunk in the first three months of the year, found many of them were well-educated, driving private vehicles. Double the numbers of people have been jailed this year as compared to the corresponding period last year.
In Delhi alone, till 15th April this year, 2,200 people have been sentenced to jail for drunk driving. This is a 114% jump from the corresponding period last year, when 1,027 people were imprisoned.
About 7,115 drivers have been prosecuted for drunk driving this year. Fifteen people have been jailed for more than six days, while 37 people were jailed for four or five days and 2,148 for upto three days. The random survey was conducted on a sample size of 1,887 drivers caught drunk. More than 85% of these people were found driving private vehicles. Of these drivers, 333 were graduates and postgraduates. Many of them were pursuing undergraduate education, as 334 had passed Class XII.
About 315 drivers were below the age of 25, while a majority of the drivers (about 1,157) were between the age group of 26-40. The oldest driver to be prosecuted in 2012 is a 68-year-old resident of Rajender Nagar. He was found driving his motorcycle drunk on 2nd March and his breathalyzer reading was 79mg/100ml. He was produced in court the next day and fined Rs. 1,600. A majority of these drunk drivers who were imprisoned were found to be driving in North Delhi, with South Delhi coming a close second. While 917 drunk drivers were imprisoned in North Delhi, 913 persons were imprisoned in South Delhi. Imprisonments in Central Delhi have been 185, while in West and East Delhi, 165 and 20 people were jailed, respectively.
A person can be booked for drunk driving if a breathalyzer detects over 30mg of alcohol in his/her bloodstream. Usually, imprisonment can be awarded to anyone found driving with more than 30mg alcohol in their system, but is usually awarded to those registering over 100mg. It is the subjective assessment of the court, but many of those who were awarded judgement of 10 days or more had recorded 150mg onwards. Drunk driving is punishable under Section 185 of Motor Vehicles Act, where violators can be fined Rs. 2,000 or sentenced to six months in jail or both. Repeat offenders can be fined Rs. 3,000 and/or jailed upto two years. If caught driving drunk, the violator’s car is impounded in cases where there is nobody accompanying the violator to drive their vehicle back.