Talking on the phone while driving is strictly against the traffic rules in the country, but hardly do people adhere to it. Safety signs urging drivers to not talk on the phone while driving may be common on the roads and highways in the country, however, people talk their hearts out even while on a two-wheeler. With increasing accidents caused due to such reckless habits, the Nainital high court (HC) on Friday authorised the transport department to "seize mobile phones (of offenders) temporarily for a period of 24 hours after issuing a valid receipt."

On Friday while delivering a series of directions to improve road safety in the state, the high court issued the new rules, The Times of India reported. The High Court had last month adopted strict rules against using mobile phones while driving in which violators' driving licences would be cancelled, The court had said that unless until the state government issues necessary amendments, a fine of Rs 5,000 would be charged from drivers not following the rule.

The court had said that the drivers along with endangering their own lives, also put risk others lives too. A bus tragedy took lives of 48 people earlier this week in Dhumakot area of Pauri Garhwal. To lessen the risk of such incidents, the single bench of Justic Rajiv Sharma gave several directions on road safety.

The bench on July 4 summoned the secretary of the state transport department to explain road safety issues and provide solutions to tackle them. The transport secretary has directed various rules to check overloading in school buses, check drunken driving, to install signboard in accident-prone points among many other instructions.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 07, 2018 04:25 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).