New Year’s Eve in India: how to get out of a packed club or party if there is a fire or a crush, and what the drink-driving law says

New Year’s Eve is the one night when thousands of people pack into the same clubs, terraces, beach shacks, hotel ballrooms and open grounds, and then many of them drive home. Two things go wrong most often: a fire or a crush in a place with too few ways out, and a drunk driver on the road afterwards. This page gives you a quick routine for the first, and the law as the Gazette prints it for the second. Checked 10 November 2026.

In short

• Find two ways out before you find a table. A single door, a locked or blocked exit, a basement room or a lit sparkler near decoration is a reason to leave, not to stay.
• If the alarm goes or you see smoke, walk to the nearest open exit. Delhi Fire Service advice is to leave by the nearest available exit, not to use a lift, and not to shout or run, which spreads panic.
• Call 101 or 112 from outside. Fire brigade service is free whatever the size of the fire.
• In a crowd, leave early. Pressure builds before anyone falls. Move towards the edge when you first feel pushing.
• Do not drive after drinking. The fine for a first offence under section 185 of the Motor Vehicles Act is Rs 10,000 and for a repeat offence Rs 15,000, after the 2019 amendment.

What the Goa club fire teaches

On the night of 6 December 2025 a fire broke out at the Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub in Arpora, North Goa. Twenty-five people died, among them 14 staff and four tourists, according to Scroll’s report of 7 December. The cause was still unconfirmed at the time: police first spoke of a cylinder blast, then said they were examining whether a sparkle gun had set it off, and eyewitnesses said fireworks lit during a performance had touched decorations. The Goa Chief Minister said the primary information showed the club had not followed fire safety norms. A magisterial inquiry, as reported by The Week on 31 December, found the club was running without a valid trade licence, that fireworks were used without proper care, and that it lacked adequate fire safety equipment. The same report says many of the dead were staff trapped in the basement and kitchen area and that suffocation caused the high toll. All of this is from news reports; the criminal case is still a matter for the court, and we do not name anyone accused. The lessons for a guest are plain: look at the way out, notice fireworks and flammable decoration indoors, and do not treat a basement or a one-door room as safe just because it is full of people. Our guide for Panaji lists Goa’s emergency numbers.

Sixty seconds when you arrive

• Look for the door you came in by, and a second one. Our suggestion: count the steps to each. In smoke and dark you will not read signs, so you need to know where they are.
• Check that exits are open. The crowd management guidelines of the Punjab disaster management department say an event must have ample entrances and exits, kept unobstructed, and that emergency exits must not be barricaded, blocked or made inaccessible.
• Notice fire hazards. The same guidelines expect fire extinguishers, hydrants and first aid kits at control points, generators and distribution boxes kept apart from the crowd, fuel stored safely, and structures and wiring certified by qualified people. If you see hanging fabric or foam near a stage with sparklers or fireworks, think twice about staying.
• Ask yourself if the room feels over capacity. Organisers are supposed to calculate a maximum safe capacity for the venue. If you cannot move your arms, the place is already unsafe.
• Tell one person where you are, and agree on a meeting point outside the building if you get separated.

For what a fire safety certificate means, our guide to the Fire NOC in India, in the related list, explains. It cannot be checked at the door, but a venue that cannot say it has one is a signal.

If there is smoke or fire

1. Do not stop to film, finish a drink or collect a coat. That is our advice, and it is what fire services mean by getting out first.
2. Walk to the nearest open exit, keeping low if the air is smoky. Delhi Fire Service says to close doors and windows behind you if you can, and to report to the person in charge at the assembly point.
3. Do not use a lift.
4. Do not run or shout. The Delhi Fire Service page says it tends to cause panic.
5. Call 101 for the fire brigade, or 112, which is the single emergency number that also reaches police and ambulance (PIB). Say the club name, the area and the landmark.
6. Do not go back in. Tell the staff outside who may still be inside.

If you are stuck in a smoke-filled room, our page on what to do and what not to do has the steps, and the number guide Fire brigade number in India tells you what to say on the call.

If the crowd starts to push

A crush is not a fight. It happens when too many people are in too little space and everyone tries to move at once. The Punjab guidelines describe the ingredients: crowd force, the information the crowd acts on, the physical space such as corridors, doors and ramps, and the time, which means a rapid rush in or out. Our own guides explain the crowd rules for pandals and fairs and, in the related list, how to survive a crush and the warning signs of dangerous pressure. In short:

• Leave as soon as it feels tight, not when it becomes frightening.
• Move towards the side and a wall or open area, and stay away from the stage front, narrow gates and stairs.
• Keep your arms up in front of your chest, stay on your feet and breathe. If you drop something, leave it.
• If you see someone fall, shout for people to stop and help them up if you can do so without being pushed over yourself.

These are our summaries of widely used crowd advice, not a quote from the Punjab document. Real cases on this site include the Chorbagan pandal crush in Kolkata and the Ashok Dham crush in Lakhisarai.

Driving home: what section 185 says now

Section 185 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 covers driving or attempting to drive while drunk or under a drug. The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019, published in the Gazette of India on 9 August 2019, changed it in these ways:

• The fine for a first offence became Rs 10,000, up from Rs 2,000.
• The fine for a second or later offence became Rs 15,000, up from Rs 3,000, and the old condition that the second offence must come within three years of the first was removed.
• A blood alcohol finding can now come from a breath analyser or any other test, including a laboratory test.

The older text of the section, which we read on a third-party legal website and not on India Code, sets the limit at 30 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood and the jail terms at up to six months for a first offence and up to two years for a repeat one. Our reading is that these still apply with the new fines, so a first offence can mean imprisonment up to six months, the Rs 10,000 fine, or both. Check the current text on India Code before you rely on it. We did not open the sections on how a breath test or medical test is carried out or on refusing one, so this page does not describe your rights at a checkpoint beyond the penalties above.

One protection helps anyone who stops after a crash. Section 134A, added in 2019, says a Good Samaritan, meaning a person who in good faith and without expecting any reward gives emergency medical or non-medical help at the scene of an accident or takes the victim to hospital, is not liable to civil or criminal action for the victim’s injury or death where it results from the helper’s negligence in acting or failing to act.

The practical rule is simpler than the law: book the cab before the first drink, name a driver who stays sober, or stay where you are. Our pages on speaking up for a safer ride and, in the related list, on drunk driving deaths in India, say more. Two cases on this site involve a driver the reports say had been drinking: the Padrauna roadways bus and the Firozabad procession crash.

What not to do

• Do not stay in a venue where exits are locked, chained or blocked.
• Do not light fireworks, sparklers or sparkle guns near decoration or in a closed room.
• Do not push towards an exit; move steadily and help others.
• Do not use a lift in a fire.
• Do not drive, or get into a car with a driver who has been drinking.

What we could not confirm

We found no official Indian checklist for guests about night club safety, so the guest steps are our own, built on the Delhi Fire Service page and the Punjab crowd guidelines (which are written for organisers). The Goa facts come from two news reports, Scroll and The Week, and the cause and the court case were not settled when we checked. The 2019 fine amounts and the laboratory test change are from the Gazette; the 30 mg limit and jail terms are from an older text on a third-party site. We did not open the sections on breath-test procedure, refusal, licence suspension or death caused by drunk driving. This page is general information, not legal advice.