94 Fined Rs 4.70 Lakh for Phone Use at Wheel

GURUGRAM: Traffic police issued 94 challans and collected fines totalling Rs 4.70 lakh during an 18-day special drive against motorists using mobile phones while driving, officials said after the campaign closed on 18 September.

The drive ran from 1 September to 18 September. Teams mounted checks at locations across the city to catch drivers talking on or handling handheld phones behind the wheel. A Haryana Police official confirmed the challan count and the combined fine figure when the results were briefed over the weekend.

What the drive targeted

Police said phone use while driving diverts attention from the road and raises the risk of crashes that can hurt the driver, passengers, pedestrians and other road users. The campaign focused on handheld use rather than hands-free navigation set up before a journey starts.

Officials described the exercise as part of regular special enforcement in a city where heavy daily commuting leaves little margin for distraction. Alongside challans, the department said it continues awareness messages asking people to keep phones out of reach while moving and to pull over safely if a call cannot wait.

Using a handheld mobile while driving remains a chargeable traffic offence. The 94 tickets over 18 days work out to a little over five challans a day citywide, a figure that traffic planners often treat as an enforcement sample rather than a full count of every violation on the road. Still, Rs 4.70 lakh in fines is a clear signal that teams were actively watching for the offence through the first half of September.

Commuters on Golf Course Road, NH-48 approaches and sector internal roads say phone glances at signals are common. Police messaging for this drive stayed simple: do not hold the phone, do not scroll, and do not take calls unless the vehicle is parked clear of traffic. Setting navigation before departure and using a mount, where permitted, is the advice officers repeated in the briefing.

Whether the September numbers change behaviour will show in the next round of comparable drives. For now, the department has put a dated challan and fine tally on record for the 1 to 18 September window and asked the public to treat handheld phone use at the wheel as a serious risk, not a minor habit.

Enforcement teams said they watched for handheld talking and scrolling rather than every screen glance at a red light. That focus matters because many drivers argue they were only checking a map. The drive's public briefings still drew a bright line: if the phone is in the hand while the vehicle is moving, it is a challan risk.

Parents ferrying children to school, cab drivers on long shifts and two-wheeler riders weaving through signals are all part of the same distraction problem. A single missed pedestrian step or a late brake at a yellow light can turn a routine phone glance into a crash file. Police want that risk message to travel with the fine numbers.

The Rs 4.70 lakh haul will not by itself clear phones from dashboards. It does, however, give traffic planners a dated benchmark for September. If later drives in October show a sharp drop in similar challans, officers will read that as partial success. If the numbers stay flat, expect longer checkpoint hours and more camera support on the same offence.