6 JAILED FOR DRIVING WITH EARPHONES ON

Offenders will have to finish jail term to get back vehicles

Driving with your ears plugged can get you arrested. The Hyderabad Traffic Police have started booking commuters caught driving using earphones or headphones under Section 184 of the Motor Vehicles Act.

Instead of simply imposing fines, the police are filing charge sheets against offenders and detaining their vehicles. Vehicles are released only after the offenders complete their jail term and undergo counselling.

About 192 cases have been booked so far this month, of which six have resulted in imprisonment.

Driving with your ears plugged can get you arrested. The Hyderabad traffic police has started booking commuters caught using earphones or headphones while driving under Section 184 of the Motor Vehicles Act.

Instead of simply imposing fines, the police is filing chargesheets against offenders and detaining their vehicles.

Vehicles will be released only after the offenders complete a jail term and undergo counselling.

About 192 cases have been booked so far this month, of which six offenders are put behind bars.

The traffic police have started cracking down on those who indulge in dangerous driving.

Although it is well-known that headphones can damage hearing, much less attention has been paid to the impact of headphones on performance while driving. The use of headphones generally causes a delay in the listener’s response to external events, which can prove to be dangerous.

It has also been suggested that wearing headphones while driving can cause more problems than listening to a dashboard-mounted sound system because headphones reduce acoustic cues and can divert a driver’s attention from helpful information such as the sirens of an approaching emergency services vehicle.