Traffic violations in 7 months of 2023 surpass last year figures

The number of e-challans issued by the traffic police to motorists for offences like driving without seat belts, drunk driving, wrong side driving and charging excess fare in these seven months has surpassed the figures of previous year

Mumbai: In seven months of this year, the city has recorded more number of traffic violations than all of last year.

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The number of e-challans issued by the traffic police to motorists for offences like driving without seat belts, drunk driving, wrong side driving and charging excess fare in these seven months has surpassed the figures of previous year.

According to the traffic police, the issues were their focus this year owing to various complaints from commuters and the number of road accidents in the city.

The traffic police officials said that dedicated drives were conducted on the offences—drunk driving, driving without seat belt, wrong side driving—after receiving several complaints.

The data shared by the traffic police revealed that 38 e-challans were issued to offenders for drunk driving in 2022, while it increased to 539 till July in 2023.

In 2022, as many as 1,21,526 e-challans were issued for driving without seat belts, which increased to 1,31,327 in till July this year. The total challan amount for driving without seat belt now stands at ₹2,62,60,200.

The cases of driving on the wrong side increased from 6,370 in 2022 to 25,724 till July in 2023. E-challans issued for charging excess fare by autorickshaw and taxi drivers, which was zero in 2022, touched 806 till July this year.

Pravin Padwal, Joint commissioner of police (Traffic) said that there should be stricter punishment. “Suspension of licences for these offences should be extended to cancellation of licences,” Padwal added.

Padwal further said that owing to pedestrian deaths across the city, it is essential to create awareness. “We are going to start a drive on jaywalking, imposing a penalty on pedestrians where subways are available for crossing the road,” Padwal said.

From January to June this year, the city has reported 121 fatal road accidents, claiming 132 lives.

The traffic police officers said that in the city with over 36 lakh vehicles, of which close to 60% are two-wheelers making them and pedestrians the most vulnerable road users in Mumbai as maximum deaths in road accidents are of pedestrians and two-wheeler riders and pillion riders.