Traffic violations in metros are at an all-time high with as many as 11,365 serial offenders roaming the streets with impunity. They have been involved in serious accidents causing death, jumping red lights and drunken driving. But they get away lightly. Invariably these serial offenders commit a serious accident in less than 2 months after being freed from the first charge. In Delhi, road accidents cause around 12,000 deaths a year. Is it then, safe to take serial offenders lightly, especially when even Ministers’ convoys are not beyond the danger of being hitIJ Deebashree Mohanty explores
I saw my 3-year-old baby and husband being mowed down by a speeding bus coming from the wrong side. This happened just a few weeks ago and within minutes my life was over. The driver who killed them was out on bail in no time. I cannot begin to tell you the shock and pain I am going through. My little girl lineshya’s death cannot go in vain. India is notorious for lack of road safety. I want this to change
— Puja Gupta has been advertising on social network sites garnering support for her appeal to the Government for better traffic conditions
There are 27 such appeals with change.org pan India in 2014 that seek redress of the pathetic traffic situation and callousness of the traffic police in dealing with them. But the petitions have not been answered by any senior authority and they are likely to only gather dust. “We lost our dear ones to regular traffic offenders. My question is, why was there no action taken when the person committed a crime/traffic violation for the very first timeIJ Perhaps that would have prevented another mishap from happening,” Gupta says.
According to the latest report, till now, 301 accidents have happened due to contravention of traffic rules. Most of these have resulted in amputations and paralysis among victims while 15 per cent of victims have died on-spot. More than 37 offenders were caught and released on bail immediately. Three regular traffic violators are in Tihar jail, awaiting a sentence. But the conversion rate is still dismal.
“Traffic violators have grown in the past three years or so. In Delhi alone, we have about 11,376 regular violators that are up to some or the other mischief on the roads daily — drunken driving, over speeding, jumping lights, no authorised documents and even driving without a licence. But since 70 per cent of them are driving vehicles with intentionally wrong registration numbers, it is very difficult to nab them. And even if we do, they get away easily because the crime is usually petty. However, the problem arises when these regular violators end up doing something nasty like causing a major accident,” Anil Shukla, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), tells you. He adds that with a robust fan following on the Delhi Traffic Police Facebook page, it is becoming slightly easier for the police to nab these roadhogs.
Shukla tells you that more than 45 percent ‘regular offenders’ drive motor cycles, while 10 per cent own a car and a whopping 45 per cent are taxi drivers who quit jobs as frequently as they get challaned. “It’s easy for taxi drivers to get away and they don’t have any qualms about quitting a secure job to get into another. The catch is, they try to get away without handing over their licences,” he explains.
One such noted petty offender is 43-year-old Natwar (the police department calls him by that name). He parks his two-wheeler wherever he wishes. Rules like stopping when the signal turns red, driving within speed limits or wearing a helmet mean nothing to him. Whenever he is stopped by a traffic cop, he gladly accepts the challan receipt, pockets it and zooms off, only to break another set of traffic rules sooner than you can imagine.
This rider, in a span of four months, has committed 144 violations (a record of all the violations is stored in the e-challan system). He remains untraceable as he has a temporary registration number plate and manages to outsmart the police on several occasions.
After an e-challan machine, which keeps a record of all offenders, was put to use, the data collected by the Delhi Traffic Police showed that motorists in Delhi are habitual offenders. According to this data,1,968 motorists are repeat offenders. Of them,150 have repeated an offence more than eight times. The top three violators include — a two-wheeler owner with 133 violations in a year, another with 68 violations and the third with 50 violations. All of them have temporary registration numbers.
“Petty offenders manage to get away every day. But the problem is that our system cannot trace them and get them to task. It is becoming a recurring problem in the metros. Even with technology induced systems and mechanisms, it is a shame that we don’t have a solution to nab offenders who ply with temporary registration numbers. Although the traffic police has some relief by way of social networking sites which help them track these nuisance makers but there is still a lot that needs to be done,” Aditi Dhaitri, a senior journalist with The Times of India who lost her father to a freak accident caused by a serial motorcycle offender in January 2014, says. Dhaitri has since taken up the task to get offenders punished.
“My father was in town for an assignment. He was a noted lawyer with the Supreme Court and was working on a very important case when he was hit by a motorcyclist from behind. He lay there bleeding for four hours before been taken to the hospital. According to the doctor, he died on the spot due to multiple brain hemorrhage, a broken hip bone and his left ankle shattered. On January 3, at 5 am, he put on his running shoes and headed to lodi Garden for his usual jog. En route, he was jogging in the walkers’ lane when he was hit from behind. He struggled till his last breath but the biker never even stopped to look behind.
“All this was captured on the CCTV at a nearby bus station. Sadly, the bikers face was a huge blur. But the registration number was caught on camera and on investigation, it was found that he was a serial offender. He is still at large but the ‘accident weapon’ (in this case the bike) was found abandoned near Maviya Nagar,” Dhaitri tells you, adding that her entire family is in disarray post this incident.
It is not just the motor cyclists that should be blamed for this traffic chaos. According to Shukla, taxi drivers are the worst traffic offenders because they are cold blooded. “These drivers often get away with murder because the onus of an accident lies with the owner. If a hit-and-run happens at an unmanned traffic zone, there are more than 90 per cent chances that the driver will get away. Even if we send an e-challan, we can only reach the owner. In some cases, the driver (who is not verified for exact address and antecedents) flees before we can reach his owner,” Shukla says with an example.
For Ankush and Shriya Gupta (name changed), life in Noida was a welcome change from the hustle bustle of Model Town where they had been living for three years after marriage. On December 27, 2013, Shriya was returning from her mother’s home in Mayur Vihar when she met with an accident.
“She was seven months’ pregnant. Shriya was driving at 10 pm when an Indigo taxi jumped a red light and banged her car at full speed. Since it was a lonely stretch, there were no witnesses to this accident and none to help her. Due to the impact of the accident, Shriya’s engine had turned off and she found it difficult to open the door and get out. The 27-year-old struggled for two hours before giving up. She and her unborn child were found dead at 4.30 am by a truck driver.
According to the paramedic, their lives could have been saved had the offender helped the victim after the accident. Shriya’s husband visits the traffic police office daily to find out if Manoj Das (the driver) has been nabbed,” Ashok Tripathy, Traffic in-charge North Delhi NCR, tells you sighting more such instances when death could have been averted had the culprit shown some humanness.
Manoj Das is from Jajpur district of Odisha and is involved in seven accidents and 12 cases of overspeeding. He has received three challans for driving without a seat belt in his two-year tenure with a reputed radio taxi service.
When the police reached his employer’s house in Mayfair Gardens, they were shocked to know that there were no original papers, no police verification and no antecedent checking done by the employer which could have helped the police reach Das.
The employer has since been charged with negligence and put behind bars. He is, however, out on bail. Das, meanwhile, is not to be found and many believe he has opened his own taxi company in Cuttack and operates from there.
Das is one among the 34 serial traffic offenders roaming the streets in India free of any charge. Among car drivers, the top offender has 17 challans to his name and is absconding after perpetrating a hit-and-run in which four persons were seriously injured at Ghaziabad.
“One of the reasons to put in place the e-challan machine was to catch repeat offenders. Earlier, we had no record of habitual offenders. Now, we have that but we do not still have the power to cancel the driving licences of these violators. This power lies with the transport authorities. All we can do is issue challans,” Tripathi tells you. But a senior officer with the Delhi Transport Department said that there has been no clear or written documentation from the traffic police to list out these offenders.
“It’s not possible for us to randomly revoke a licence of a driver unless we are provided with solid proof of his misdoings. There is a process and that takes time,” an officer who did not want to be named, said.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Traffic authorities are doing everything possible to take these nuisance-makers to task. In 2013 around 40 violators’ names were forwarded to the licensing authority for suspension. In 2011, the traffic police had sent 23 names while the number went up to 35 in 2012. In 2013-14, the number rests at 57.
“We are gaining strides this year in bringing the guilty to books. Repeat offenders are advised to improve their driving by a written warning notice that is mailed at their address. Failure to pay heed to this warning invites a recommendation for suspension of the driving licence.
“A recommendation for suspension of driving licence is made only if five or more offences have been committed and at least one of the challans is of a recent date. We have already cancelled 40 licenses in Delhi NCR and are hoping to better that by the end of this year,” Maneesh Chaudhry, UT SSP Traffic, tells you.
Along with this reform activity, the police have also decided to request insurance companies to increase the premium paid by offenders. “These offenders will be classified as risky drivers and we are planning to write to insurance companies and the Transport department in this regard,” Tripathi says.
Offenders list:
Rajkumar Pai
33 from Nangloi, New Delhi
Has been involved in 33 traffic violations in the past 14 months. Pai drives a Hero Honda with a false registration number. Most of the times he is caught without a driver’s licence. The last violation was a road accident in Yamunavihar (12 km from his residence) when Pai couldn’t control his bike and rammed into a footpath. A 63-year-old beggar was hurt. Pai was caught on the spot and challaned. His bike was seized. But Pai sweet-talked the head constable at the Yamunavihar police station and got his bike released the very next day. He signed on a notarised letter promising to never violate a traffic rule.
Nowadays, he visits the police station often with news about local offenders and their hideouts. Pai also supplies information about goons and other petty thiefs in the locality. “He is a good informant. Pai keeps good company and has a eye out for all things mischievous. His traffic violations, meanwhile, have reduced dramatically. And he owes it to his wife who is a teacher at a Government school,” Munshilal Dwivedi, station in-charge of Yamunavihar, says.
According to Dwivedi, these kinds of reformist measures might work with traffic offenders who have some sort of morals.
But for those who commit these crimes regularly and for the heck of it, there is no better way other than harsh punishment for them.
Ritesh Sahoo
29, Azadpur Mandi, New Delhi
Sahoo has been committing traffic violations since the day he got his driving licence.
As a driver in Model Town 2, Sahoo was involved in a major car accident (June 23, 2010) and has been regularly summoned for gross traffic indiscipline. On November 2, 2013, he was booked for over speeding in a borrowed Honda Civic car at the Ashram crossing. The car belonged to a well-known High Court lawyer.
“When this lawyer got an e-challan for overspeeding, he came down to meet us and expressed his anguish because he was out with his family for the entire month and the car was left to the driver.
On questioning, the driver told us that on that fateful day, he had lent the keys of the car to Sahoo. It was later discovered that this type of misdemeanour is his modus operandi. In between August 2011 and November 2013, he had been involved (directly or indirectly) in 11 serious traffic offences. He was booked in 6 of them while he got away in 5.
At this moment, he has been hired by a marriage bureau and owns a second hand Maruti 800. It is an irony that with his own car, Sahoo has been quite sensible following traffic rules and regulations,” Sawant Sharma, special charge, Delhi Police Traffic, says.