Drunk drivers: old nuisances in new bottles

ISLAMABAD:

They come to their senses only after landing behind bars. Suddenly, they regret the deed that puts them there.

Sure, drunk drivers don’t ‘intend’ to kill anyone, but they also don’t consider the high probability of an accident coming their way if they get behind the wheels while under the influence of alcohol.

But they do meet accidents, often inflicting severe injury and even death. There needs to be some deterrent to prevent people from taking the wheels while drunk.

There is a deterrent — the law — but it has never been put to practice. Driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol is punishable under section 279 of the Pakistan Penal Code but who would implement it? To be punished, drunk drivers have to be caught first.

DUI has been an old problem for commuters in the federal capital, particularly on weekends, but for the Islamabad police it seems to be something new. And for Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) it does not even seem to be a problem.

Last week, a “high-flying” driver in pickup truck slammed into three unfortunate bikers on 9th Avenue near Fatima Jinnah Park, well within city limits. The force of the Toyota Vigo, moving at around 159 kilometres-an-hour killed two of the boys on the spot, while the third remains in hospital in critical condition.

The three friends, Zubair Mujahid and Amir Hamza, residents of Kot Addu and Kamran Ahmed, a resident of Abbottabad, were returning home from late-night work shifts when they met the accident. They were obeying the traffic signals at the intersection, “even at that late hour”, witnesses said. “It was the Toyota Vigo that jumped the red light. It appeared from nowhere and hit the bikers before they even had time to react,” said a witness, Muhammad Sami who was waiting at the other side of the intersection.

The driver of the pickup did not try to run. He managed to stop the vehicle a few yard ahead and got out to see what had happened. It was here that he was caught. “He must have thought it was just a minor collision, but when he saw the boys he broke into a cold sweat,” said a friend of Sami’s who did not want to be named.

The errant driver identified as Muhammad Mehtab, a resident of Rawalpindi, was taken into custody by Margalla police when they finally arrived at the crime scene 15 minutes later. He tested positive for liquor, was shifted to lock up, was produced before a court and sent to jail.

Soon after, he made bail, because “rash driving” is a bailable offense.

So the case closed for police. How about the bigger problem of drunk driving that goes unchecked? But how can you expect police to be proactive in preventing it when they are not even active enough to reach the crime scene in time.

“We do arrest people driving under the influence of alcohol, but if we put them in lock ups, they get out after phone calls from ‘influential persons’,” said a police officer when asked why the police do take strict action against such drivers. “Sometimes the reference of some influential person would even be enough at police checkpoints,” added the officer.

But at the end, he felt it was the ITP’s job.

“They would have been in a better position to check cars for speeding, swerving or other reckless driving. They can issue tickets to people and if they find drunk drivers, the traffic police can call us to the come arrest the suspect,” said the officer. But it seems the traffic police was oblivious to the high number of swerving and speeding cars seen every weekend on the city’s major arteries. Maybe action will come, but for the bikers, and countless others, it will be too little too late.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 8^th, 2013.