Rampant drunken driving cases are turning Delhi roads into a deathtrap

An inebriated driver again spilled blood on the roads of Delhi, killing two and critically injuring one, bringing to the fore the menace of drunk driving. A 21-year-old youth, a resident of the Janakpuri area of West Delhi, on Monday ran over three pedestrians, driving at a speed of over 100 kmph. The youth was returning from a party in his father’s Honda city car in the wee hours of Monday, when he mowed down Kameshwar Prasad, 40, and Ashwini Anand, 67, who were both out for morning walk. The third victim, Santosh Kumar, 40 who was out cleaning cars, is critically injured and is not in a condition to give a statement, the police said. [caption id=“attachment_2833612” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational Image. AFP[/caption] According to NDTV report, the 21-year-old first ran over Kameshwar Prasad. The CCTV footage suggests that the impact was such that the speeding car threw Prasad several metres away, however, the youth instead of stopping, drove on and rammed his car into two others. The police finally chased and stopped him. The report says that the youth was so much under the influence of alcohol that he couldn’t even manage to stand up. The gruesome incident brought to light another hit-and-run case from earlier this year, in which a juvenile under the influence of alcohol ran over a 32-year-old marketing professional killing him. The juvenile, who turned 18 just four days after the incident, was found to be a repeat offender of violating traffic rules. The Juvenile Justice Board, taking cognizance of the fact has decided to try him as an adult, The Hindu reported. The court also charged the juvenile’s father with ‘abetement of crime’ for allowing the youth to drive before the legal age. In a stark resemblance , both incidents claimed lives due to the menace of drunk driving in early morning hours, as the accused were returning from parties drunk. Both accused have been charged for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and not causing death by negligence, which is a bailable offence. In the Janakpuri case, the accused only stopped after being chased by the police, suggesting that the act was done with the knowledge that it is likely to cause death, but without any intention to do so. The police, however, has not found any records of previous traffic rules violations. The last time Delhi police booked someone under culpable homicide not amounting to murder (IP section 304) was in the much publicised Sanjiv Nanda BMW case, 17 years ago, when six people were killed in Delhi’s Lodhi colony. Indian Penal Code Section 304 is a more stringent charge being non-bailable and punishable with imprisonment for life or for a term which can extend up to 10 years, apart from fine, unlike IPC Section 304 A (causing death by negligence) which is bailable in nature and punishable with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or both. It is noteworthy that the government is mulling passing the Road Transport and Safety Bill 2014, which proposes stringent punishment for road safety rules offenders. However, nothing has materialised so far. Drunk driving is a massive issue on the city’s roads, most incidents taking place in the wee hours. A report by  Hindustan Times states that according to Delhi police, most drunk driving cases are reported between 2 to 7 am when drunk drivers are returning home from parties and get-togethers. The report also claims that the number of challans issued each year for drunk driving are on a steady rise, with 14,000 challans issued already till 13 June, 2016.