Hyderabad: Compliance with the helmet rule is on the wane, Traffic police says that two lakh cases are being booked every month on an average, but the rule is still being violated. There is no let up in the special drive on helmets, traffic police said.
This stands in sharp contrast to the success of the crackdown on drunk driving, which has forced party-goers to either hire cabs or have one person in the group volunteering to stay sober to drive the others home.
“The traffic police should have sustained the intensity of the campaign for three more months. It was carried out with vigour in March,” said traffic and transport expert S.N. Rao of the Annamacharya Institute of Technology and Science.
The numbers say it all
He said about 70 per cent of two-wheeler riders were wearing helmets but it has visibly come down to one in two riders. “One can count heads while commuting on the road. There are many two-wheeler riders riding without wearing helmets. Many are locking helmets to the rear of the vehicle,” he said.
Prof. P.R. Bhanu Murthy of JNTU said continuous enforcement was crucial for any rule to be followed. Traffic police should realise that the drive against helmetless riding should not be a flash in the pan. Both Mr Rao and Prof. Murthy said stricter laws would ensure compliance with the helmet rule.
DCP, traffic, A.V. Ranganath said as per the Motor Vehicles Act, neither can the driving licence be suspended nor community service awarded for helmet rule violation.
In the traffic police efforts against against drunk driving, experts said, the success was due to the rules that specified community service or prison for the offenders.
“Motorists have realised that they cannot get away with their act by paying a penalty once booked for drunk driving. They are sent to jail or made to do community service,” said former director-general of Engineering Staff College of India Dr Nagabhushan Rao.
Another reason is that the campaign has been continued for three years without it losing steam. “The exercise of booking drunk drivers is videographed. The violators are produced in court with proof. Repeat violators are being imprisoned. As such the enforcement against drunk driving is more successful,” said Mr Satish Gupta, a social worker.
Mr Ranganath said that the enforcement against drunk driving appeared successful because those not booked for drunk driving are not visible, as was the case with helmet rule violators. The two-wheeler riders without helmets are visible.
“Every month, we book about 1,500 cases for drunk driving. The number motorists consuming liquor and driving vehicles may be much more. On the other hand, over two lakh helmet cases are being booked every month since March,” he said.
