Telangana: No law for pillion riders

Hyderabad: Unlike in many states, the city police has not enforced any law for the pillion rider on a two-wheeler to wear a helmet so far. “Helmet is absolutely necessary for a two-wheeler rider while on the road. Accidents are never predictable. The pillion rider’s life is equally in danger in case of an accident,” said Mr M. Vinod Kanumula, chief functionary of the Indian Federation of Road Safety. The pillion rider helmet rule is in existence in Ker-ala, Delhi, Bengaluru and Chennai.

The traffic police says it cannot enforce the law because it is on a step-by-step pro-cess to get riders to wear helmets. “We wo-uld be focusing on implementing the rule with riders first. It is necessary to stabilise the enforcement pro-cess by taking gradual steps,” said Hydera-bad joint commissioner of police, traffic, V. Ravinder. “The rules are very strict on paper but the officials should work more on the ground level,” said Dr Soi, who is considered to be one among the top 10 road safety experts in the world.  

There has been a significant change in the number of bikers wearing helmets after the system to levy penalty points on the driving licence came into for-ce. “Hope the authorities make it mandatory for pillion riders too,” says Mr Kanumula.

2,68,995 people booked for no helmet:

The police have booked 2,68,995 persons till April this year for riding two-wheelers without a helmet and have collected Rs 2.69 crore as penalties. For the first-time violator, the fine is Rs 100 and the second-time violator has to shell out Rs 200. According to the Hyderabad traffic police, as the fine is miniscule, two-wheeler riders prefer to pay the fine rather than wearing a helmet. The police said that counselling can make a difference as it had happened in the case of drunken driving.  Hyderabad traffic police DCP AV Ranganath said, “Since violations are increasing, we have made it a point for violators to attend counselling sessions.”

The recently launched penalty points system has done its part to curb violations. “We have noti-ced a decrease in the nu-mber of violators for the past two weeks as the penalty points system came into force,” said M Vinod Kanumula, chief functionary of the Indi-an Federation of Road Safety.  The details of the penalty point system are entered and stored in the database of Road Transport Authority (RTA) for two years. “If a person’s pen-alty points exceed 12 within 24 months, his/her driving licence is suspended for one year,” said an official.

A person, however, can cut down three penalty points by attending a training course or a motor vehicle accident prevention programme, conducted by an institution which is recognised by the Telangana transport department.