CHENNAI: Texting or talking on the mobile phone while driving can cost you your driving licence for six months. Just ask the 64,105 people in Tamil Nadu who were stripped of their licence between January and July this year for using mobile phones while driving, according to Transport Commissioner C Samayamoorthy.
The transport department has been cracking down on violations but it’s motorists who lost licences for using mobile phones while driving that top the chart. This accounts for 40.91 per cent of the total number of driving licences — 1,56,702 — suspended between January and July. The crackdown followed a Supreme Court order. Last year, 57,158 lost licences for this offence.
As many as 19,422 licences have been impounded for six months for drunken driving, while 29,964 lost their licences for transporting people in goods carriers. Red signal jumping led to 18,287 people being punished with suspension of driving licence. Meanwhile, 17,701 licences were suspended for overspeeding and 7,223 for overloading in goods carriers.