Drunk and driving,in instructor’s seat

The Trombay traffic police on Friday intercepted a Tata Sumo near Mankhurd Junction,after being alerted by its erratic driving. They found that its driver,Abdul Shaikh (36),was under the influence of alcohol. But what surprised them was the fact that he was a driving instructor and was teaching his student how to drive.

“Shaikh works as the principal instructor at a motor driving school located in Trombay which has branches in many parts of the eastern suburbs. When he was arrested at around 11:45 am,Shaikh was teaching his student to drive,” said Police Inspector Suresh Pawar from the Trombay Traffic Police Division.

He added,“Since he was heavily drunk,he was driving erratically which made us suspicious. So,we decided to intercept him.” Shaikh was later checked for alcohol consumption,which was found to be very high. He had 499 milligrams of liquor in his sample against the permissible limit of 50 milligrams,Pawar said.

“It is really ironic that a person,who had been appointed as an instructor for teaching driving,was himself drunk at the time of teaching his student how to drive,” said Pawar. Shaikh has been booked for drunk driving under Section 185 of the Motor Vehicles Act,and will be produced in the Kurla court on Saturday morning.

DCP (Traffic) Harish Baijal said that it was the third day of the student’s training. “There are over 300 motor training schools in the city and if the instructors are not able to teach the students the basic rules of driving,how will they make good drivers. The result of such training would only add up the number of accidents in the city. Every training school should see to it that their instructors themselves follow the traffic rules,” said Baijal.

“Also,the parents should verify the antecedents of the driving schools and their instructors before sending their children there,” Baijal added.

Drunk driverS
31,438 cases till now
13,532
drivers jailed

13,369
licences suspended