On the night the city rang in 2018, two bikers lost their lives in road accidents while over 165 people sustained minor injuries. The police booked more than 100 cases for drunk and rash driving.
The city police, however, said there were no fatal accidents during the New Year celebrations and that the two deaths occurred early on Monday morning.
According to the police, around 3.30 a.m., Roymon Rabin, 29, from Kerala, who was allegedly drunk, died after his bike rammed a platform near Egmore. The deceased was working in a star hotel as car driver and was returning from the Marina beach after participating in the celebrations.
At Avadi, around the same time, three persons leaving a church met with an accident when their bike dashed into the median. One of them, Paul, 27, a resident of ESI Anna Nagar died on the spot. The two pillion riders escaped with minor injuries and were admitted to a hospital.
Huge crowd at beaches
The city’s new year hotspots were teeming with revellers from Sunday evening. About 60,000 people were milling around Marina beach. Elliot’s beach, Palavakkam beach, and the hotels and resorts were all crowded.
The police had deployed nearly 10,000 personnel across the city to ensure the celebrations were incident free.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), A. Arun told the Hindu , “All the drunken drivers were stopped and we let them go only after they were sober. We booked them all for drunk driving. No fatal accidents occurred between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. due to celebrations. In connection with minor accidents, 11 cases have been booked.”
In addition to 368 police check points, 25 out posts were put up. Despite their best efforts, bikers gave a tough time to police personnel. A police officer said many of the motorcyclists behaved like daredevils, driving the crowds and other motorists into panic.
