Drink or drive. Think and drive.

The Bangalore city traffic police booked 667 cases of drunken driving on December 31 2018 night across the city. 1390 cases were booked across the city on 31st of December 2017. Pune and Pimpri Chinchwal police collectively registered nearly 1000 cases of drunk driving by people welcoming the new-year 2019. The number of people who were booked in Pune will be added to the list of 14,972 people who were caught for drink and drive in the past year 2018.  In 2017, 4776 people – 13 people every day died in 14,071 road accidents due to driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, this was a 22% decline from 6,131 deaths in such cases in 2016. Data says that between 2008 and 2017, 76,446 people died in 2,11,405 road accidents nationwide due to consumption of alcohol or drugs. By 2017, deaths had reduced 38% from 2008 when 7,682 deaths were recorded and 55% since 2011 when 10,553 were recorded.

“When you look at the government data, there is no guarantee, the data is pretty fractured. The present system that the government follows in collecting the data is based on FIR. If an accident occurs, followed by an immediate death of the victim at the time of filing the FIR, then it is recorded, but if the death occurs after a week of the crash in the hospital then the change is only made in the FIR. So a large number of victims get lost as a result of this. The source of data needs to move from police to the health system.”  says Piyush Tewari, founder, Savelife foundation. (Above information are collected from various newspapers.)

Lets not talk about the numbers further on. But just think who will be taking you back home when you drink and drive. A Police? (Jail is your new home in that cases!) A doctor? (“Get well soon” if your alive and hospital will be your home till you recover.) or yourself?(Most probably not you.) Alcohol reduces the ability to see distant objects. You will be losing your license(Congrats, you are still alive.) or you life. Just think of your future, think of your date/dates. Then, think before making a stupid and worthless mistake. Don’t drive when your drunk, you’ll be alive, arrive alive. If you are drunk it’s perfect to take a back seat ad enjoy the ride. We tell kids not to get in the car with a drunk driver. Don’t we? But what if the drunk driver is a parent? Alcohol is a perfect solvent. It dissolves marriage, families and careers. If possible “Say NO to Alcohol”. If not, DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE. At last what I want to tell you is that,

“Country roads need safer drivers. Be one among them.”

Friends don’t let Friends drink and drive.

Drink or drive. Think and drive.
Yours Lovingly,
Jogi B Mahesh