Cases of drunk driving seem to have taken a deep plunge by 60 % between 2015 and 2016 in Bihar. The state had imposed a liquor ban in the state, that seemed to have helped to reach this figure. The ban was imposed in 2016.
However, the number of fatalities caused by drunk driving has almost doubled in Uttar Pradesh in the time period, from 1,404 in 2015 to 2,716 in 2016 — according to the government’s latest report.
Besides Bihar, Jharkhand and Haryana have also witnessed a fall in this rate, where fewer deaths, injuries and accidents have happened due to drunk driving in 2016. On the other hand, West Bengal, Punjab, Puducherry and Odisha are among the states and union territories where the number of deaths in drunk-driving-related accidents has increased.
The national capital has witnessed a five-fold increase in such fatalities — while six persons died in drunk-driving-related cases in 2015, 30 were killed last year.
“It’s no more a secret in most of the cases that the dead person is hardly shown as being under the influence of alcohol even when it’s so. This is because the dead are always treated as victims, and to ensure that their family members get compensation from insurance companies or from government,” said a senior police official, who was the in-charge of traffic in a metro city.
Harman Singh Sidhu, who had filed a PIL for a ban on liquor vends along national highways, said, “Bihar’s alcohol ban really had an impact.
