Law needed against drunken driving: Shastri

New Delhi, Apr 23: Delhi Health Minister Yoganand Shastri has stressed the need to frame law to save the life of drunken drivers and people injured in accidents caused by such driving.

Britain had successfully reduced the rate of high road accidents after implementing such a law, Dr Shastri said at a national consultative meeting to prevent drunk driving in India, organised by Indian Alcohol Policy Alliance (IAPA), here on April 21.

The minister said India already has a very high rate of road accidents. As per the recent statistics, about four lakh accidents take place on Indian roads every year, resulting in death of over 85,000 people and causing injuries to another 6,00,000 people.

This means, 235 people die and another 1600 get injured/hospitalised every day due to road accidents.

These accidents result in huge economic loss of about Rs 15,000 crore per year to the country, besides pain, grief and suffering caused to the families of those dead and injured.

It was estimated that ten to 30 per cent of hospital beds were occupied by road accident trauma victims.

According to the Alcohol and Drug Information Centre (ADIC), India, in 1998, 72 per cent road accidents were alcohol related whereas 17 per cent government hospitalisations related to alcohol.

Dr Shastri informed that a recent survey conducted by Directorate of Prohibition NCT of Delhi on drinking and driving revealed that more than 45 per cent vehicles were driven by drivers who had consumed alcoholic drinks.

Youngster's, particularly college student's, tend to mix drinking with driving for a 'high' or exhilaration and increase their potential to be involved in an accident. A third of injured motorised two-wheeler riders in Delhi occure under influence of alcohol.

He said IAPA should initiate such a meetings and seminars in interior and rural areas to educate the masses should be conducted.

Initially, they may not get the desired results but slowly and steadily people would start listening and follow their instructions as they will realise that it was for their benefit.

In such situations, the IAPA should educate the society on the whole about the ill effects of consuming alcohol and driving by taking this cause as a movement, he added.

On the occasion, Delhi Development Commissioner Narendra Kumar said one could estimate the seriousness of the problem from the fact that road crashes were the second leading cause of death globally among the young people aged five to 29 years and the third leading cause of death among people aged 30 to 44 years.

In India, injuries due to road traffic accidents were becoming a significant problem with 5,12,120 deaths resulting from injury with 85,998 deaths a year from road traffic accidents.

Underlining the role of women, especially mothers in spreading the message against the consumption of alcohol, he gave the example of Nagaland where mothers played an important role in the drive against liquor consumption.

UNI