1,455 fined in seven days for violating traffic rules; special drive continues

Gurugram: The Gurugram traffic police has fined 1,455 people — 1,195 for driving on the wrong side, and 260 for violating lane driving rules — during two road safety drives in one week, said the officials on Thursday.

The drive to reduce accidents due to these two violations across the city were launched on May 12, and are set to continue indefinitely, said the officials.

Ravinder Singh Tomar, deputy commissioner of police (DCP) traffic, said that the drive is being conducted with a focus on stretches like Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road, Gurgaon-Faridabad Road, Golf Course Extension Road, Golf Course Road, Sohna Road, Dwarka Expressway, Vikas Marg, and Netaji Subhash Marg. “Around 17% of the road fatalities in the city happen due to wrong-way driving and for violating lane driving norms. To curb this, we have started an indefinite road safety drive focusing on these two violations, especially on stretches where the offence is common. Heavy enforcement is the main solution for these violations,” said Tomar.

According to the traffic police officials, around 70 out of 409 road fatalities in 2021 happened due to wrong-way driving and lane driving violations.

Besides penalising the violators on the spot, the traffic police also use digital surveillance extensively. They issued 1,910 e-challans for traffic violations through cameras on Wednesday, Tomar added.

The Gurugram traffic police issues a fine of ₹500 for wrong-way driving, and ₹1,500 for a subsequent violation. A wrong-way driving violation can also lead to termination of the licence, and even an FIR is registered against an offender for rash driving under Section 279 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). A violator in addition to the wrong-way driving also pays ₹5,000 for dangerous driving, and ₹10,000 for a subsequent violation. A lane driving violation carries a fine of ₹5,000 and ₹10,000 for a subsequent violation. The traffic police issued 32,834 fines for wrong-way driving in 2021, 39,765 in 2020, and 49,761 in 2019.

They started focusing on enforcing fines over lane driving violations in September 2021. Between September 9 last year and February 9 this year, 11,568 violations were noted, said the officials.

Tomar said that since February, commuters have largely started following lane driving rules, and the average number of daily fines issued has come down from 75 to 50 per day.