Chennai: Police booked over 200 people for violating traffic rules on Christmas Day on Sunday, officials said. According to the Chennai Traffic police, 140 people have been booked for drunken driving, 68 have been booked for triple riding, and 33 have been booked for driving without a licence. A police officer said on Sunday night near the Gemini flyover, a group of people created a ruckus on two-wheelers without wearing a helmet.
The footage of the incident went viral on social media, following which the police registered a case. Pertinently, statistics show that Tamil Nadu has the highest number of road accident deaths in India. In particular, last year alone, 11,419 deaths occurred in Tamil Nadu, according to the National Crime Records Bureau 1,026 people died in road accidents in Chennai alone.
Also read: Chennai Traffic Police to prosecute & fine those travelling with drunk drivers to curb accidents
The traffic police are implementing precautionary measures to curb road accidents. In the new Motor Vehicle Amendment Act brought by the Central government in 2019, fines of Rs 10,000 have been imposed only on drunken drivers in Tamil Nadu under the new Motor Vehicle Act and they are being recovered through the courts. Last year alone, 1,178 cases of drunken driving were registered in Chennai. The traffic police are taking various initiatives to prevent drunken driving as the cause of most accidents.