Drunken driver akin to suicide bomber: Court

A drunken driver is like a suicide bomber, a court here said, and proposed strict punishment to the guilty on the roads.

"A drunken driver is like a suicide bomber who has set out to kill himself as well as other road users and thus deserves a very stern sentence which should have a deterrent effect and discourage everyone from driving after alcohol intake," Additional Sessions Judge Virender Bhat said on Monday. The details of the ruling were made available to the media on Tuesday.

"A stern sentence to these offenders would go a long way in making the roads safer, thereby saving precious human lives.

"The menace of drunken driving has assumed alarming proportions, and one of the ways to curb it is by imposing severe sentence on such offenders," the judge said, while sentencing autorickshaw driver Pawan Kumar to 20 days in jail.

The judge dismissed the convict's appeal against a trial court order awarding him the jail term.

The court observed that Kumar was driving a commercial vehicle in a heavily drunken state.

"It is not possible for a person to drive his vehicle properly and show quick responses when required after intake of such a huge amount of alcohol."

The court said a drunken driver cannot take rational and spontaneous decisions.

"Excessive consumption of alcohol blurs one's vision and intensely impairs the ability to judge things on the road," the judge said.

"A drunken driver risks not only his own life but also that of other motorists as well as the pedestrians."