Balurghat: Drive against drunken driving intensified
BALURGHAT: Traffic police conducted a special drive on Tuesday night in Balurghat's Hili-more area to curb drunken driving through a breathalyzer test. The drive was organised in presence of Deputy Superintendent of Police (Traffic) Bilbamangal Saha and Officer-in-Charge (Traffic) of Balurghat Babul Hussein.
As many as 12 suspected motorists, including bikers, were facing the breathalyzer test while two of them were prosecuted for drunken driving.
"The drive which had begun in recent times saw 27 prosecutions in March and 18 so far in April. This indicates that we need to step up monitoring on the road particularly at night. We used to conduct the drive regularly at different points in and around the city. If anyone is found flouting the norms through breathalyzer test, a temporary suspension of licences for a few months and fines as per government rules would be taken up against the flouters," Babul Hussein said.
According to a police source, the new device (breathalyzer) that was introduced in recent times, allows a person to blow from a distance of around 5 cm, instead of getting a pipe inside a mouth.
"The traffic police personnel posted at different checking points used to conduct the drive on a regular basis at night to identify the cases of drunken driving. The Breathalyzer test becomes imperative because without checking a suspect physically, it becomes tough to identify the drunken driving cases," said the source.
Before the new device was introduced when the suspects were taken to hospitals for their blood tests, the doctors insisted on the breathalyzer test for confirmation.
Hussein said, earlier anyone could be asked to blow though the breathalyzer on the basis of suspicion but now the test is being conducted to those only with visible signs of intoxication.
"We used to conduct the drive at different points including Hili-more, Gobindapur, B M School more, Patiram, Kamarpara, Khanpur, Khapur and Badamile to detain the rush motorists and bikers.
