A city court on Tuesday gave drunk driving a sharp rap on its knuckles when it stated that, a drunken driver is like a suicide bomber who has set out to kill himself and other road users. It went on to propose stringent punishment for such offenders.
These observations were made in the context of a case in which an autorickshaw driver had been found driving in an inebriated state.
It won’t be inappropriate to say that a drunken driver is like a suicide bomber, who has set out to kill himself as well as the other road users and thus deserves a very stern sentence which should have a deterrent effect and discourage everyone from driving after alcohol intake.
– Virender Bhatt, Additional Sessions Judge
The judge, while dismissing the convict’s appeal against a trial court order awarding him a jail term of 20 days, said that excessive consumption of alcohol can blur one’s vision and impair one’s ability to judge things on the road. One cannot take quick or rational decisions while under the influence, he declared-–so much so that a drunken driver ends up risking not only his own life but also that of other motorists and pedestrians.
A stern sentence to these offenders would go a long way in making 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 sentences on offenders.
–Judge, Delhi Court
The court’s observations came upon the appeal of Pawan Kumar, an autorickshaw driver, who had challenged the sentence awarded to him by a magisterial court for driving drunk.
In his appeal against the order, Kumar had said that he was not challenging his conviction but the sentence as he was a first-time offender and that the imprisonment would leave an “indelible” scar on his life.
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