PORVORIM: Drunken driving and causing deaths was equivalent to murder on roads, Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho said, while reacting to the ghastly accident at Banastarim in which three persons were killed and three others seriously injured.
Godinho said that stringent action would be taken against the offenders and no one would be spared. The accident at Banastarim killed three persons and families lost their valuable members and bread earners.
“This is nothing but plain murder on roads as you cannot take lives of innocent people when you are drunk. Accidents due to drunken driving should attract stringent punishments because they are totally irresponsible and the accused in such cases are akin to killers,” said Godinho.
The Transport Minister said that during the course of investigation in the Banastarim fatal accident by the police, everything will be opened up to find out who was at the wheel and who needs to be punished.
Stating that people made fun of his statement in the past when he proposed that people drinking in bars must be sent home by taxis, Godinho said that he had issued warning several times that drunken driving must be done away with. “I had only suggested that people must use the app-based taxi service to go home after getting drunk in a bar. I had never told the bar owner to hire a taxi for every drunk person in the bar and we realise this now. Every drunk person moving out of a bar is like a bomb waiting to kill people on a road,” he said.
Godinho said that he has convened a meeting of Safety Council to plan adequate measures to prevent fatalities on Goan roads. “Banastarim road accident is a great eye opener,” he said and appealed to all Goans to drive responsibly on the road.
