Drunk driving: 14 drivers of school vehicles caught drunk at wheel in Hyderabad traffic police crackdown
HYDERABAD: In a surprise inspection targeting school transport vehicles at 34 junctions across the city on Wednesday, the Hyderabad traffic police caught 14 drivers for drunk driving.
Among them was an auto-rickshaw driver with a staggering blood alcohol content (BAC) of 276 mg/100 ml, far exceeding the permissible limit of 30 mg.
Police checked around 350 vehicles, seizing 14 of them, including four school-operated buses. The remaining offenders were operating auto-rickshaws and an Omni van. All the accused have been booked under the Motor Vehicles Act.
In response, joint commissioner of police (traffic) Joel Davis on Thursday urged school authorities to equip themselves with breath analyzers to check drivers ferrying students.
He was addressing the managements of 3,218 schools during an event on school safety event, titled 'School Management and Stake Holders Meeting on Students Safety', organised by the traffic police. 'It's a shocking number. I was taken aback when I found out,' Davis said.
'This is the first time we've conducted checks specifically on school transport vehicles,' added deputy commissioner of police (traffic-I) Rahul Hegde.
'The special drive was carried out late in the afternoon, after school hours. Since the academic year began just a week ago, we decided to target drivers responsible for transporting children.'
Despite four of the accused being drivers employed directly by schools, traffic police have so far refrained from taking action against the institutions themselves. 'Unless an accident occurs, we won't hold schools accountable,' Hegde said.
'But it is their duty to ensure they hire only clean drivers, as we're talking about the safety of children.'
The traffic police urged school managements to take greater responsibility in driver recruitment and appealed to parents to exercise caution when choosing auto-rickshaw drivers. 'The special drive against school transport offenders will continue,' the DCP added.
While speaking about the road safety, traffic police said that over 9 million vehicles operate daily in Hyderabad, and only 3,000 personnel are available to manage the city's traffic. Police stated that 8 students have lost their lives in various road accidents between 2023 and 2025.
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