Call on hold

The Delhi Traffic Police now plans to prosecute drivers who talk on mobiles when behind the wheel. Will this move curb traffic violations?

Sravani Kar, a 26-year-old media professional, was driving her Maruti Swift to Gurgaon when her boss called. Rather than stop her vehicle and talk, she put the mobile phone on speaker and continued driving. Two traffic policemen on a bike saw her and penalised her. Kar thought paying a fine would be enough but was shocked to find that talking on the phone while driving could lead to a prison term extending up to six months.

Delhi Traffic Police now have plans to prosecute drivers who talk on their mobile phones when behind the wheel. According to Anil Shukla, additional commissioner of police (traffic), the authorities are serious about imposing this punishment. "The fines and challans don't seem to deter people from dangerous driving," he says. Shukla says that they plan to impound the vehicles as well as punch the driving licences of the offenders.

Under section 184 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, a person using a mobile phone while driving is liable to pay a fine of Rs 1,000. Although it is one of the harshest punishments in terms of fines, many people are comfortable paying the fine or getting away without paying it as well. Delhi Police on a daily basis book about 10,000 people for traffic violations. Out of these, only 800 have been booked till May this year for using a mobile phone while driving. Last year, the number was less than 2,000. Only 31 people were arrested last year for the violations and Shukla says they were serial offenders. For the record, there are about 75 lakh registered vehicles in Delhi.

Compare this with Mumbai. From January to April 2013, Mumbai police have booked as many as 7,150 motorists. These numbers have come down by almost 300 per cent in the last five years. In 2008, about 25,000 motorists were booked for committing the offence.

When caught, people blatantly lie about having committed the offence, and the police have to listen to a range of excuses. "Some even delete call records to prove they weren't talking on the phone," says Shukla. Excuses include anything from laughable to pitiable. "I would have lost my job," or "my relative is in the hospital," people plead when caught using a cell phone. Bikers often put their mobile phones inside their helmets and continue talking. When stopped by police, they say they were talking to themselves. In other traffic violation cases, there is clear evidence. For example, not having registration papers or not wearing a seat belt.

Using hands-free devices is also an offence but, most of the time, the police are lenient with those using such devices. "It's distracting and dangerous even if you have both your hands on the wheel," he says. Offenders, when caught using hands-free devices, say that they weren't talking on the phone but were singing a song, says Shukla. According to the law, even playing music in a car is a punishable offence.

It's the courts concerned that decide whether a jail term should be given or not. If an accident takes place, then the police push for the challan to be cleared in the court rather than on the spot. "We've tried increasing the cash fine as well," Shukla says. If a person is caught a second time for the same offence, then the fine goes up to Rs 2,000.

For drunk driving violations, Delhi Traffic Police has stopped imposing the spot fines and the offenders have to directly go to the court to pay the amount. Shukla says while the initiative is about awareness, people's lackadaisical attitude is alarming. "They continue to send messages while driving without realising that they're putting lives in danger," he says. The authorities have conducted awareness drives as well as launched ad campaigns to inform motorists, but it has been of little help, in the case of using mobile phones. Shukla feels that perhaps the fear of going behind the bars would prove a deterrent. "Stricter measures have to be taken to stop the use of mobile phones."