Totally sober: Drunk driving cases drop to all-time low

Wary of the high risk associated with the use of breathalysers, police have booked 80 per cent fewer cases since the lockdown

The number of drunken driving cases has dipped to an all-time low in Bengaluru. With its innumerable pubs and bars, the city has always recorded a high number of drunken driving cases.

A month before the first lockdown was clamped, in February, police had booked 997 cases in just one weekend. All that has changed.

In about a little over four months of the lockdown, the city has seen a significant decrease in the number of cases. A source said they had come down to single digits in each of the last four months, but the top brass was reluctant to confirm it, fearing it might embolden tipplers to take to the wheel.

The police department can’t remember a time when the numbers were so low.

“It’s the new normal: cases are down by 80 per cent. I have never seen so few being booked for drunken driving,” says BR Ravikanthe Gowda, joint commissioner of police, traffic. Traffic expert MN Sreehari says this is but a temporary reduction.

“People haven’t really stopped drinking, but the closing of bars and restaurants has caused this lull in drunken driving,” he says. He believes that once the situation is back to normal the numbers will go up. Even if drunken drivers are on the road, the police are in no position to catch them.

“To fine someone for the offence you need proof that their blood alcohol level is above the safe limit,” says Sreehari. “And that is not easy to get without going close.”

The breathalyser test, which involves asking the driver to blow into a device, is completely out of the question. “The next best option is to conduct a blood test, but hospitals are risky places to be in and the healthcare system has enough of a load to carry already,” he explains. Understandably, the police are wary about the process of stopping and testing drunken drivers. “We aren’t testing like before, given the risks of going close to motorists and checking their breath,” says ACP (Traffic Central) Kavitha K. Breathalysers have been completely eliminated and the general instruction is to ensure the least contact, she told Metrolife.

“We are still monitoring the roads, and the primary method of testing has shifted to blood tests,” says Ravikanthe Gowda.

Why numbers are so low

Unsafe to use breathalysers.

Curfew and lockdown curbs: Pubs and bars are closed.

Fewer people venture out.