While male motorists get caught for drunken driving, the fair sex has been enjoying an unfair advantage. Thanks to the paucity of women officers, the traffic police are unable to check the incidence of drunken driving among women.
There are just nine women officers attached with the city traffic police which means only two women teams are being pressed for the drive and that too once in a fortnight, a police official said.
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There are two problems when it comes to deploying women teams — their transportation during late hours and their ability to work beyond duty hours, he said.
During a two-hour drive a team of two women constables check at least 10 women motorists.
Till now, these teams have caught four women drivers for violation. “We found that some women drivers can be as intoxicated as men and can be equally dangerous on roads. If only we had more women constables, we could have posted them at other check points too,” the official said.
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The maximum amount of blood alcohol content (BAC) tested by a woman motorist till date is 79 mg per 100 ml blood.
According to Motor Vehicle Act, a person can be booked for drunken driving if his BAC levels cross 30 mg per 100 ml of blood.
In Cyberabad
While the city police are grappling with the problem, the Cyberabad police have decided to adopt a different strategy. “Instead of constituting separate women teams, we are attaching a woman constable to the main teams to check drunken driving among women drivers. We are also primarily concentrating in and around Gachibowli area,” a police official said. Drunken driving enforcement is being taken up under all 12 traffic police stations under the Cyberabad commissionerate and in about 15 points by the city police. Officials conduct checks mainly on Fridays and Saturdays as accident analysis shows that maximum number of accidents occur on these two days.
184 cases
The city traffic police in the meantime booked 184 drivers for drunk driving at the 13 check points on Saturday.