Picture for representational purpose only.

HYDERABAD: While 273 cases of ' minors behind the wheel ' have been registered by Hyderabad traffic cops between March and April 23, in 2018, 26 parent have also been imprisoned for the offence in March and April—show latest figures.

While 20 parents were jailed for letting minors drive in the month of March, 6 parents were jailed till April 23 of this month. In addition to parents being jailed, in one case, a minor was also sent to jail in the month of February, as per the court’s decision.

According to city traffic cops, the crackdown, came on the heels of a number of accidents involving underage drivers , is set to continue.

“We are now regularly conducting these special drives once or twice every week to crackdown against minor or underage drivers,” said Anil Kumar , Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Hyderabad.

The number of underage driving offences grew by more than 30 per cent in Hyderabad in 2017 when compared to the previous year—shows statistics provided by the traffic police. In 2017, cops booked a total of 14608 cases while a little under 11,000 cases were booked in 2016—thus indicating a 32 per cent hike in the number of offences.

In the month of February 2018 alone, in a massive crackdown carried out by the Hyderabad city traffic police department, more than 1079 cases of minors even as young as 13 or 14 driving motor vehicles were booked. 60 parents were also jailed for the offense.

