New Year’s eve went off accident-free, thanks to the elaborate arrangements made by police of three commissionerates in the State capital.
This was the first time that there were no fatal road accidents in New Year celebrations in several years with police deploying a huge force for implementation of strict measures. The new Hyderabad police commissioner C.V. Anand himself was on roads till 2.30 a.m. as he supervised arrangements in all five zones of the commissionerate.
In an accident not related to drunken driving, an engineering student of Toli Chowki Khaja Basheeruddin Quadri, 24, was killed when the car in which he was travelling with his friends crashed into a divider and turned turtle near Patancheru bus stand on city outskirts at 1.30 a.m. The occupants of the vehicle were not drunk and were going to a dhaba in Sangareddy from Toli Chowki to consume biryani.
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As many as 2,498 persons were booked for drunk driving in the three commissionerates in less than five hours on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday,
The meticulous planning and the robust strategy implemented to control the movement of people has paid rich rewards in terms of curbing rash, negligent, and drunk driving, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Hyderabad, A.V. Ranganath told The Hindu .
He said that thousands of policemen were virtually on the roads throughout the New Year night of December 31 devotedly doing their duty.
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“Apart from a few stray incidents of vehicles involved in accidents which caused minor injuries, no fatal accidents were reported,” Mr. Ranganath said.
According to the data shared by the Joint CP, the Hyderabad traffic police in coordination with law and order counterparts booked 1,265 tipplers. The number has increased drastically from 496 drivers caught last year and 960 the previous year.
Interestingly, a large number of drunk drivers were caught in ‘South District’, which includes, Nampally, Goshamahal, Asif Nagar, Charminar and other parts of old city when compared with ‘North District’ comprising uptown Jubilee Hills, Banjara Hills, Punjagutta and SR Nagar, apart from Secunderabad area.
Declaring it as ‘Accident-Free’ New Year’s eve, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Cyberabad, Vijay Kumar S.M. said that they booked 873 persons for driving under the influence of alcohol, apart from 3,681 other traffic violations like triple riding, rash driving.
Most of the drunk driving cases were reported in Kukatpally, Gachibowli, Madhapur and Miyapur areas.
Meanwhile, Rachakonda police said that they booked 360 tippler drivers. They caught 299 two-wheeler riders, 52 car drivers, six autorickshaw drivers and three lorry drivers.
The police of erstwhile Medak district have registered about 180 drunk and drive cases.
In Sangareddy district, as many as 114 cases were registered between 10 p.m. on December 31st to 4 a.m. in the wee hours of Saturday. On all the routes, the vehicles were checked, and those drunk were caught by police. In Siddipet district, 67 cases were registered.