Team Herald

MARGAO: As the Directorate of Transport has suspended four of the 100 licences sent to it of people found driving under the influence of alcohol, the Traffic Cell at Margao is all geared up to book more such cases equipped as they are with 10 more new alchometers.

In the first three months of the current year, the Margao Traffic Cell had booked 15,562 cases for violations of the Motor Vehicles Act and of these 797 were referred to the Transport Director for suspension of the driving licence.

Cases booked for driving under the influence of alcohol, rash and negligent driving, using a mobile while driving and carrying people in goods vehicle, besides being fined, are also referred for suspension of the driver or owner’s licence.

This year the Traffic cell has booked 363 cases of over speeding, 100 cases against people driving under the influence of alcohol, 30 cases for breaking the traffic signal or rather jumping the red light, 249 cases of rash and negligent driving, 52 cases against people using mobile while driving and three cases against persons taking passengers in goods vehicle.

Besides these other cases booked under the Motor Vehicles Act are: 64 against minors driving a vehicle, 327 against people for taking two pillion riders on a two wheeler, 190 against people driving without a license and a whopping 6751 cases against persons riding a two wheeler without wearing a helmet.

Police Inspector Mohan Gaude disclosed that the unit has got 10 new machines to check alcohol level of the drivers. “The old machines that had broken down are now replaced and we are all geared up to crack down against drunken driving,” he said.

Last year the Transport Department Office at Margao had suspended 52 licenses of the 2012 cases that were referred to them. Of the 343 cases referred for driving under the influence of alcohol 19 persons’ licenses were suspended last year while 188 cases were referred back to the police for not complying with the procedure.

Police used to submit a photocopy of the license to the Transport Department because of which the cases were referred back to them. Since then they have started submitting the original license to the Transport Department and use photocopies for other procedures including the court.

 Very often fearing the likelihood of the license being suspended, the transgressor claims not to have a license and prefers to pay the fine for driving without a license with the police unable to expose the person at the moment.

 “This is most common with the cases of people carrying passengers in goods vehicles as this offence is committed usually by the outstation truck drivers,” said Mohan Gaude.

The Department is in the process of uploading the software to link all the transport offices so that license details are available online and authorities can know if a person has a license or not or if his license is suspended or not.