PUNE: Pune city police have decided to impound four-wheelers and two-wheelers driven by minors and keep the vehicles with them for a year to curb rise in cases of underage driving, reports Gitesh Shelke. The action will begin this week.
The move comes following the May 19 accident in Kalyaninagar in which a minor boy driving a Porsche Taycan hit a motorcycle, resulting in the death of two techies.
Earlier, the police would summon and register cases against parents of such drivers and send the cases to courts for final settlement.
“The idea behind keeping seized vehicles at police stations is to ensure minors do not get a chance to drive them again. This will help reduce accidents involving minors,” additional commissioner of police Manoj Patil said.
Road safety activists, however, raised questions over the feasibility of the action. “Owners of impounded vehicles can secure an order from the court to get their vehicles released, negating the action. Additionally, police stations are grappling with space issues to keep seized vehicles on their premises,” an activist said.
“In case the owner of an impounded vehicle secures an order for the release of the vehicle, we will abide by the court’s directives. As for the space crunch, a few police stations have large space, and we will utilise it,” Patil said.
According to section 199A of the Motor Vehicles (MV) Act, police can not only impound vehicles used by underage drivers but also get the RTO to cancel the registration of such vehicles for 12 months and ensure the minor offender does not get a driving licence till he/she attains the age of 25. The same section also empowers police to file cases against parents of underage drivers.