Dippy Vankani for Mumbai Mirror

On Saturday night, vigilant cops caught 60 youngsters with blood alcohol levels far exceeding the normal limit
 
Mumbai, Jun 11: For a lot of HSC students in the city the results last week seemed to have gone to their heads, quite literally. Just ask the traffic police who caught 60 youngsters driving around on Saturday June 9 night whose blood alcohol levels far exceeded normal limit. The police say they don’t net these many offenders even on New Year’s Eve, which has about 15-20 cases registered every year.

“We arrested 60 youngsters on Saturday night from the eastern and western suburbs for drunk driving. We had anticipated that HSC students would be out celebrating their recent success. What we were worried about was them taking their cars to party and driving back drunk, possibly causing accidents,” said Harish Baijal, Deputy commissioner, Traffic, City and Suburbs.

Twenty-five sub-inspectors and over 100 constables were deployed on Mumbai’s roads between 11 pm and 2 am on Saturday.

“Our men, armed with alcohol meters and speed radars, were stationed at various spots in the city, especially near pubs and discos,” said Baijal.

According to him, most of the arrested youth were below the age of 20 and were students of various colleges in the city. All of them were booked under Section 185 of the Motor Vehicle Act for drunk driving and were produced in court on Sunday.

According to the police, the youth were speeding and each car had more than three youngsters inside — all drunk. Many of the drivers were dead drunk and had consumed alcohol beyond permissible limits. “With rash driving incidents on the rise, we decided to be pro-active and keep drunk drivers off the roads,” said Baijal.

According to him, even if 10 per cent of these youth had met with accidents, they would have proved fatal.

“We would like to appeal to parents of youth who have just entered degree college to keep a tab on their activities and make sure they do not take the family vehicle out at night,” Baijal said. The special drive of the traffic police continued on Sunday night.