If you thought you can step on the accelerator and escape traffic police in case you have broken a traffic rule, think again. Last year, nearly 30 percent of the challans were issued by traffic police officers after chasing down the offending vehicles.

A brainchild of Police Commissioner Y S Dadwal, the concept of chase-and-challan introduced last year seems to have paid huge dividend. The police had inducted 210 motorcycles and 50 Police Control Room (PCR) vans especially for traffic patrolling.

The motorcycles introduced last February were assigned specific corridors that they patrol throughout the day — a constable and a head constable ride the motorcycle and are authorized to issue challan slips to violators. These motorcycle-borne police officers challaned more than 4 lakh offenders last year, it was disclosed at Friday’s annual police conference.

Besides catching vehicles that jumped red lights, these motorcycles also cracked down on improper parking by prosecuting more than 62,000 vehicles.

The 50 PCR vans dedicated for traffic are posted in major traffic corridors in New Delhi, South and Southwest police districts from 8 am to 8 pm. These vans track traffic offences for 12 hours and revert to crime patrolling during the night hours.

“Chasing offending vehicles have a bigger impact — people now know that there is no escape route after braking traffic rules,” Joint Commissioner (Traffic) S N Shrivastava said.

Last month, a head constable won a reward of Rs 10,000 from the police commissioner for prosecuting a senior judicial officer who had jumped a red light.

Now, Shrivastava said, the traffic police plan to expand the scheme further: “Whenever we get more motorcycles this year, they would also be used for traffic.”

As per police records, the most number of challans were issued for red-light jumping in 2008. Last year was also a first in several years that jay-walkers were challaned in the Capital.

ON PAGE 3: MORE FROM ANNUAL POLICE CONFERENCE

The toll last year

ACCIDENTS 

* 7,485 accidents in 2008

* 1,989 people killed in accidents

* Fatal accidents down 4.3% since 2007

* Accidents by private vehicles down 20%

PROSECUTION

* Total challans: 26.4 lakh

* Red-light jumping: 5.29 lakh

* Jay-walkers challaned: 20,900

* Traffic police officers on road: 5,100

Shot over a papad & some other murders

THAT Delhi lives on a short fuse is hardly news — the rise in the number of murder cases, from 467 in 2007 to 518 in 2008, only point towards that. But what has stumped even police chief Y S Dadwal is the “petty reasons” over which many murders took place. Here’s a look at some apparently trivial issues that turned fatal in 2008, as disclosed by Dadwal at Friday’s annual police press conference:

* A dhabawala was shot after he refused to serve food since the dhaba had closed for the night.

* A cook was shot after he forgot to serve papad to the customer.

* A dancer was shot over choice of music in a ring ceremony.

* A private security guard killed another after he reached late to take over the shift and relieve the former.

* A murder took place over a fight during a game of gulli-danda.

* A milk-seller was stabbed to death after he informed his customer that there was no more milk.

* A man stabbed his cousin brother after the former refused to shell out money for liquor.

* A man was beaten to death after he urinated in front of another’s house.

* A dhaba owner was stabbed after a waiter spilled water on a customer’s shirt.

* A man killed his debtor after he was asked for Rs. 250.