259 penalised for driving without helmets

On the first day of their joint campaign to ensure adherence to traffic rules, the Mumbai Traffic Police and the Transport Department suspended the licences of 148 offenders across Mumbai.

State Transport Minister Diwakar Raote had on Tuesday announced a focused campaign against traffic offenders, in which offences such as drunk driving, over speeding, signal jumping and overloading of vehicles would attract immediate suspension of driving licence for a period of three months.

An officer with the Mumbai Traffic Police said, “The campaign was kicked off in various areas in Mumbai, including Colaba, Hutatma Chowk, Kalbadevi, Mankhurd, Vikhroli, Mulund, Saki Naka, Bandra and Malad on Wednesday. Teams comprising our personnel and officials from the Regional Transport Office concerned took part in the campaign. The teams stationed themselves at important junctions and high-traffic areas such as the Electric House in Colaba, the Mahim causeway and the Hyper City mall in Malad.”

Officials said that the campaign was enforced at different times in different areas. From 11 am till 6 pm, licences of 148 offenders were suspended for various traffic violations. Cases of driving without helmets were the highest in number, with 259 motorists being penalised.

The idea behind the campaign is to ensure that traffic rules are not violated and to impress upon people that flouting rules will attract serious penal measures. The traffic police have, over the years, found that the penalty of a monetary fine, which applies to violations including drunk driving, is not enough of a deterrent for motorists.

The Hindu, in its January 2 edition, had reported how the Traffic Police would be issuing e-challans to drunk driving offenders so that it would be easier to pinpoint repeat offenders.

In case a person is penalised two or three times, the police will appeal to the court to impose a punishment of at least one of two days of imprisonment on such offenders.