New Year Day celebrations in the city, despite intense campaigns against drunk driving by the traffic police authority, witnessed high number of violations.
The Hyderabad Traffic Police (HTP) registered a whopping 1,413 drunk driving cases. Its counterpart in Cyberabad police commissionerate, during the 12-hour check between 6 p.m. on December 31 and 6 a.m. on January 1, booked 1,314 cases.
The figures also assertively show that youngsters in both parts of the city in the age bracket of 21-30 were the most drunk, at about 55% of the total violations – 789 in Hyderabad and 705 in Cyberabad. And, the maximum 84% (2,285) of the total drunk driving violations in both the limits were also by motorcyclists.
For Cyberabad police, Gachibowli (121), Kukatpally (180), Miyapur (136), KPHB (119) and Madhapur (118) police limits were hotspots. The HTP, in addition to its drunk driving checks, booked cases of wrong side driving (2,381), triple riding (513) and driving without helmet (6,242).
Checks all through the night
According to officials, a large number of civil and traffic police personnel were deployed for the intense campaigns. And check points were installed at strategic locations, based on high incidence and near accident-prone locations.
While the police’s top executive briefly participated in the cake-cutting ceremony at the stroke of the hour, and later visited a few locations and oversaw arrangements, personnel from all ranks were present throughout the night standing behind barricades and with the handheld breath analysers.
Hyderabad City Police Commissioner C.V. Anand, Cyberabad Police Commissioner M.S. Raveendra and Rachakonda Police Commissioner D.S. Chauhan along with senior officials participated in cake cutting events and conveyed their greetings.
Although the police ensured several measures to check situations during the celebrations, the start of the year was not incident-free.
Two pedestrians, including a woman, were killed near Banjara Hills Rd. No 3 at around 5.30 a.m. on Sunday, when a car that was reportedly being driven under the influence of alcohol and at a high speed rammed into them and the vehicles around. Both the victims breathed their last at the scene and were shifted for further procedure.
Preliminarily, it was reported that the occupants of the car were students of an engineering college. The police have opened a probe.
A tense situation was also reported in Saidabad police limits where a group of youths, part of the celebrations at a function hall at Champapet, attacked each other with bottles and broke furniture. The police have registered a case.