New Delhi: Eight persons lost their lives in separate accidents in Delhi on Holi, as city police maintained a heightened vigil on the roads ensuring reduced fatalities in mishaps on the festival of colours since 2007.
"The presence of policemen at strategic locations and strict traffic enforcement resulted in the lowest fatal accidents in the city on Holi till now, as only eight fatal accidents were reported from all over the city in which eight persons lost their lives," Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Anil Shukla said.
This was against 11 fatal accidents that took place on Holi in 2014, 14 in 2013, 13 in 2012, 11 in 2011 and 15 in 2010. The highest number of casualties on Holi was in 2006 when there were 20 fatal accidents in which 22 people were killed, he added.
A total of 11,492 prosecutions were made on Friday which included 1,569 for drunken driving, out of which 336 prosecutions were made against registered vehicle owners who allowed their vehicles to be driven by unauthorised persons/drunk drivers.
According to Special Commissioner (Traffic) Muktesh Chander, the numbers are bound to go up as violators who were caught on cameras but not prosecuted immediately, would be sent challans.
Out of the 1,569 prosecutions made for drunken driving, 7 were HTV drivers, 33 were MGV/LGV drivers, 213 were car/jeep drivers, 909 were two wheeler riders, 36 were TSR drivers, 5 were Delivery Van drivers and 35 were other vehicle drivers. A total of 923 vehicles were impounded during the drive.
In addition, 787 persons were prosecuted for red light jumping, 249 for wrong/improper parking, 192 for dangerous driving, 898 for overspeeding, 787 for triple riding, 954 for rider/pillion without helmet, 41 for not using seat belt, and 41 for not having valid driving licence.
According to Delhi Police data, last year on Holi, 13,015 prosecutions were made out of which 5,633 were for riding without helmet, 1,544 for red light jump, 1,464 for triples-riding, 139 for dangerous driving and 2,090 drivers were for drunken driving. In addition, 881 vehicles were also impounded during a special drive.
About 200 teams of traffic police officials were stationed at different locations in the city to take action against drunken driving, over speeding, reckless driving, zig-zag driving, dangerous driving, red light jumping, triple riding, minor driving, driving/riding without helmet, performing stunts on two-wheelers and other traffic offences.
Joint checking against drunken driving was undertaken jointly by Delhi Traffic Police, PCR and local staff of respective police stations.
Additionally, Chase and Challan motorcycles and cranes were also used in the special task of prosecuting drunk drivers and towing away improperly/unauthorisedly parked vehicles and also vehicles impounded during the drive.