167 licences suspended daily for traffic violations till June

CHENNAI: Tightening the screws on traffic violations, the authorities here have suspended the driving licences of 30,383 people, or nearly 167 a day, till June this year for six offences identified by the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety (SCCRS).

Of these, one in four had their licences suspended for jumping red light. In the first six months of the year, 8,336 licences were suspended for jumping the signal. The next highest number of suspensions is for overspeeding (7,057), followed by using mobile phones while driving (6,748), carrying persons in goods carriage (3,908), drunk driving (2,272) and overload in goods carriage (2,062).

The Supreme Court committee had directed the suspension of licences of drivers who commit these six traffic violations.

Explaining the procedure, a senior Transport Department official said that under section 19 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, the licence is suspended for six months for the first offence and cancelled for a repeat offence.

“To curb the menace of drunk driving, stringent enforcement measures are being taken by the Transport Department with the suspension of the licence in the first instance and cancellation in case of a repeated offence,” said the official.

However, imposing fines and suspending driving licences alone would not help reduce road accidents, said J Krishnamoorthy, founder of R-Safe, an organisation that works to create awareness about road users’ safety, and a former joint director of the Institute of Road Transport.

Urging the government to issue driving licences only after stringent conditions, he said, “Every day 3,000 driving licences are issued in the State. Most of them are unaware of the traffic rules and signage,” he lamented.