Tightening up its noose on drunken driving, Odisha police and transport department authorities have arrested 216 offenders across the state since the past 24 hours.
The police invoked stringent legal action under section-202 and 203 of the Motor vehicle act to arrest drunken drivers of two-wheelers, three-wheelers, and four-wheelers. The drunken drivers were intercepted mostly near the NH toll plazas, check gates, and busy thoroughfares after they were detected to have consumed alcohol by breath analyzers, said officials.
With the driving vehicles under the influence of liquor mainly attributed for the rising road accident fatalities, authorities have resolved to invoke the act which empowers them as the culprits. Such action is highly required to check road fatalities, said, officials.
The State police have already put in place the check posts at National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) toll plazas to nab the offenders and put them behind the bars.
In the drive against drunk driving yesterday night, a total of 251 drivers were detected driving under influence of alcohol. In accordance with the directives of the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety, a total of 138 driving licenses (DLs) were suspended. Police and RTO staff detained 232 vehicles of the offenders. In strict action, 216 drunk drivers were arrested by Police, added officials.
The sole objective of establishing check posts at strategic locations is to bring down the road accident fatalities which have risen alarmingly over the years. Drunk driving is one of the potential factors for the rising graph of road accidents and fatalities, they said.
The Road Safety Committee constituted under the direction of the apex court has been directed to prosecute the drunken offenders under section-185 of the Motor vehicle act, 1988 and suspension of a license under section-20 of MV act.