Every road user has right to be safe on road: Delhi court

Be it a driver or a pedestrian, every road user has a right to be safe on the street, a Delhi court has observed while upholding the conviction of a man in a drunk driving case.
Additional Sessions Judge M R Sethi, while dismissing an appeal filed by north Delhi resident Karambir against a magisterial court order, said that a road user's right cannot be allowed to be taken away by someone who drives negligently under the influence of alcohol.
"Every road user has the right to be safe on the road whether as a driver or as a pedestrian. This right cannot be permitted to be taken away by some other person who drives a vehicle rashly and negligently and under influence of liquor in violation of the law," the judge said.

"A road user not only has the right, but also has duty towards other road users to look after their safety. He has to be cautious against faults of others and also of his own.
"He cannot throw to winds his own duties towards safety of others by driving a vehicle in a rash or negligent manner and that too under influence of liquor. Apparently, anyone who does so deserves to be punished," he said.
The judge, however, reduced the jail term of 30 days awarded by a trial court to seven days but the fine of Rs 3,500 imposed on him remained unchanged.

Karambir was held guilty of offences under provisions of Motor Vehicles Act.

According to the prosecution, he was apprehended at a traffic signal near Narela in north Delhi after he was seen driving a mini-truck in a zig-zag manner.
It had said that in his breath analyser report, the content of alcohol was found to be 953 mg per 100 ml of blood, which was 31 times more than the permissible limit of 30mg/100ml of blood.
However, he had claimed he falsely implicated and that he was not drunk and was not tested with any breath analyser.