Mumbai police to seize vehicles of motorists for wrong-side driving offence

Mumbai: The Mumbai traffic police will now start seizing the vehicles of motorists who drive on the wrong side of the road. A warning has been issued by the cops after a number of FIRs were registered for wrong-side driving offences.

Even after a campaign started by city police commissioner Sanjay Pandey on March 6 to bring awareness to the severity of the issue, cases have not come down. Till March 31, around 2649 FIRs have been registered against motorists for driving on the wrong side.

The top cop had asked officials to take action against motorists and to remove the abandoned vehicles from roads after getting several complaints from residents and senior citizens.

According to police officials, on average, each day they are registering at least 200 FIRs on the issue, Pandey has tweeted that if the numbers do not go down, the police will be instructed to seize the vehicle of the driver. “Till now, we were not impounding the vehicles of the motorists who were caught driving on the wrong side; however, it is observed that even after 25 days of the awareness campaign being started, people have not learnt a lesson,” said a senior police officer from Mumbai traffic police department.

For driving in the wrong direction, the police book the motorist under the Indian Penal Code Sections 279 (rash driving) and 336 (endangering life or personal safety of others).

After Pandey was appointed the Mumbai police commissioner last month, he had asked officials in the department to take action against traffic norm violators, hawkers and builders who create noise pollution, and to remove abandoned vehicles from roads.