HYDERABAD: Telangana ushered in the New Year and new decade on a high note, literally. It wasn’t just the alcohol consumption that was high, but the tendency of thousands of revellers to take to the wheel under the influence of alcohol. As a result, as on Wednesday morning, nearly 3,148 persons were booked for drunk driving by the police officials across the State until 8 am. The massive State-wide drive ensured that no major accident was reported on the day.
The special drive that lasted for eight hours from New Year’s Eve into New Year’s day under the three city police commissioners saw 2,105 persons (including one woman) driving under the influence of alcohol. In Hyderabad city police limits, this number has come down as against previous years. Only 951 were caught for drunk driving this year as against the 1,235 in 2019. The situation, however, was different on Cyberabad roads where drunk drivers seem to have doubled as compared to last year. This year, nearly 873 were caught, which has been one of the highest numbers of those caught driving drunk on a single day. Last year, the figure was 587.
Of those caught, the majority were of the age group 21 to 30. “In the last one year, the number of pubs has increased and so have the number of hotels which offer alcohol to customers celebrating new year’s on their premises. Owing to this, we also increased checkpoints to nearly 52 across Cyberabad to nab more offenders and avert any accident,” added DCP Vijay Kumar, Cyberabad Traffic Police. Rachakonda limits saw 281 persons being caught under the influence of alcohol. Amongst districts, the highest list of offenders was in Nalgonda district, which notched up a score of 152 drunk drivers. While all these revellers were tested, video footage was recorded and their vehicles confiscated by the police to avoid any accidents. They will now be tried under the MV Act in respective courts under the policy limits. Under the new MV Act, offenders can be fined up to Rs 10,000 and sent to prison up to six months for the same.
There were 15 people with above 300 BAC: Cops The college student was not the only one with such a dramatically high alcohol percentage, according to officials, in Cyberabad police jurisdiction alone. There were as many as 15 people with above 300 BAC. For a person to have more than 300 BAC, at least 30-40 pints of light beer has to be consumed