Chennai: Giving out staggering statistics, the city traffic cops claimed to have booked 21,310 cases against offenders for not wearing seat belts in the first four months of this year, which is double the number of cases booked in 2013.This, in spite of the lackadaisical attitude of the traffic cops who are more notorious for spurts of ‘enforcement drives’ from time to time rather than consistent, strict enforcement.

A senior traffic officer doesn’t deny the allegations.“We are not able to enforce in a strict manner. But, there has been a conscious effort to book offenders in case of traffic violations and that reflects in the statistics,” the officer said.

The police say that they have instructed their enforcement officers, about 325 of them, throughout the city to be strict with traffic enforcement and levy spot fines in case of violations. A total of Rs 10.85 crore has been collected as fine in traffic violations this year as of April 30, compared to Rs 7.88 crore during the same period in 2014.“The increase in the number of cases booked in the corresponding period itself is 2.2 lakhs (8.73 lakh cases until April 2015, against 6.54 until April 2014), said additional commissioner (traffic), P. Thamaraikannan.

First-time offenders are asked to pay Rs 100 and if repeat offender, `300 will be collected. Even VIPs and drivers of police vehicles are not spared, according to another senior police officer. Mr Thamaraikannan believes that this clamp down on traffic violators has brought down the number of fatalities. According to data provided by the cops, the city roads have witnessed 359 deaths until April 30 this year, 125 less than last year’s 484 during the same period.