Kathmandu, April 1

Valley traffic police have taken legal action against as many as 206,087 persons for driving under the influence since they launched the crackdown on drink-driving on December 3, 2011.

According to the latest figures released by the Metropolitan Traffic Police Division, it booked 39,667 persons for drink-driving in the fiscal 2011/12, 52,280 in 2012/13, 54,535 in 2013/14, 36,065 in 2014/15 and 23,540 in the first nine months of the current fiscal. Of them, 1,352 were women. The number of persons booked by the traffic police for drink-driving steadily increased from 2011/12 through to 2013/14 but significantly dropped in 2014/15 and 2015/16 due to devastating earthquakes of April and May 2015 and subsequent fuel crisis, which forced more than 70 per cent of vehicles to stay off the roads for six months, said officials.

The anti-drink driving campaign has helped reduce road accidents. On the other hand, the traffic police have collected approximately Rs 189 million in fines from the offenders. Traffic cops fines each offender Rs 1,000. As many as 236 road accidents were recorded in 2012/13 compared to 155 in 2013/14, 150 in 2014/15 and 122 so far this fiscal with 206, 132, 162 and 107 people injured in the respective fiscal. However, the deaths associated with drink-driving are in fluctuation. Six persons were killed in 2012/13, four in 2013/14, three in 2014/15 and four this fiscal.

The crackdown was launched in the wake of increasing number of road accidents associated with drink-driving in the Valley. The existing law does not say anything about alcohol limit and thus the law enforcement agency has adopted zero tolerance policy against drink-driving.

According to Section 60 of Motor Vehicle and Transport Management Act-1993, if a driver violates traffic rules for more than five times, the authority may suspend the driving licence of such drivers in the sixth instance on the basis of the number of holes punched in the licence.