Chennai: The helmet rule is back in the city, and the traffic police are going all out to raise awareness and impose fine on riders and pillion riders for breaking the rule.
The roads in Tamilnadu are said to be the most notorious for road mishaps. But the city traffic police are not letting any lives be claimed due to carelessness of not wearing a helmet.
Sample this, in the past nine days, the city traffic department has fined more than 18,000 riders for riding without helmets.
According to another report, 9,167 pillion riders have been fined for violating helmet rule. Each day, 600 to 800 riders and pillion riders are being fined, the most number of cases have been recorded at Anna Nagar.
Motorists violated rules, such as non-wearing of helmets, triple riding and using mobile phones while riding.
This year, till June end, around 1.45 lakh helmet cases have been booked against riders in the city. Even as the rule has been imposed in the past, many feel the decision needs to have a consistency and regularity.
Advocate and activist, S S Balaji, said, “There are many violators even now. Majority of those who wear the helmet do so because of the law. They do not look into the condition, quality or reliability of it. Motorist do not understand they have to wear it for their safety.”
While this is one side of the argument, there is a strong voice against the helmet rule campaign calling it a mere eyewash and an escape mechanism for the law enforcers.
Trichy-based activist S Jayaprakash, said, The data showing the people who died only because they did not wear a helmet is wrong. For any two-wheeler accident taking place and a death take place in it, they add to the figures.
They do not go to the bottom of the case to find how exactly the accident took place. How sure are we that the helmets are of ISI quality?
In Tamilnadu, only Chennai has a quality check office. People living in other districts do not know what an ISI mark is. There are cases when the helmet breaks into pieces when a motorist skid and fall.
Jayaprakash said that there are many things that need to be done to make the roads safe for motorists and wearing a helmet is not the answer to it. There are roads without a traffic signal, pothole ridden stretches, roads with dangerous bends and without reflectors.
Aren’t they reasons for claiming lives? The authorities are escaping these shortcomings by imposing the helmet rule. Why are they not regulating the speed on bikes?
Now two wheelers can be driven at 180 Kmph, he said. Last month, the City Police Commissioner asked all policemen to lead an example by wearing helmets and not violate the rule themselves.
| ENTHUSIASTS CRY FOUL |
| While motorcycle enthusiasts welcomed the rule reignited, they expressed dismay over police nabbing those wearing international brands which although much safer don’t have ISI mark.
A motorcyclist, said, “There are many international brands like HJC, Bell, Arai, Stilo, AGV, Shoei, THH, LS2, MT, Shiro, SMK, etc., which have international ratings like ECE, DOT, Sharp, etc. But just because they don’t have ISI mark, police nab the bikers with those helmets and mint money.” |