There was yet another tragic incident recently when a car carrying college students crashed near Rajghat in Delhi killing one of the occupants. Unfortunately in a country where over 1,50,000 people die on the roads every year, this will become just another statistic, even though Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has mentioned time and again that he wants to bring down this terrifying number.

But wanting to bring down this number and actually doing it are two separate things altogether. And to achieve this, the involvement of local police force is essential. For example, the alacrity with which the Gurugram police recently allowed a wrong-side driver to get bail even though he was primarily responsible for an accident that took the life of a motorcyclist was shocking. We might never have known of the incident had it not been for the availability of footage from a friend of the deceased. There is a litany of such incidents in 2024 alone, including the shocking Pune crash that took the life of two young software engineers.

There are many solutions to reduce the number of road fatalities but one thing that police forces must do fast is to crack down on drunken driving. In fact, before COVID, several police forces including in Gurugram and Mumbai had done just that and their actions were yielding results. A night in the lockup or the suspension of a Driving Licence for few months, had created the necessary fear factor. If we are to save lives, a crackdown on drunk driving has to take place all over India urgently. In countries like Indonesia, the police have resorted to spot Urine tests to not just deal with drunk driving but also measure the presence of drugs.

Thanks to the emergence of app-based taxis and even Driver rentals, there are no excuses left for going back home behind the wheel of a car while drunk. Sure, new emerging technologies on a car which can measure blood alcohol can prevent a car from starting but these are still many years away from becoming a widespread reality. Until then, a nationwide crackdown is essential.

There have to be many other fixes to poor driving habits, including the shocking prevalence of wrong-side driving across India. In fact, this has been normalised to such an extent that vehicles do this on Mathura Road right next to the Supreme Court, where the Honorable Judges have often lamented about the traffic situation. But everyone needs to start somewhere. And this is where things should start.