Hyderabadis say boo to helmet rule

Traffic police have registered hundreds of cases against citizens who are not wearing helmets while surveillance cameras have captured violators at various junctions. It has been found that more than 60 per cent of two-wheeler riders are not wearing helmets. A Ravi Chander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Traffic, Hyderabad told Expresso that helmets are compulsory in the Twin Cities. Even as Traffic police are registering several cases on a daily basis, the nonchalant attitude of the public continues. As per High Court directions, the city traffic police enforced the helmet rule when Tejdeep Kaur Menon was in charge of the department. Initially, the Traffic police went about implementing the rule eagerly, but these days, they concentrate on issuing e-challans. Ravi Chander said that the traffic police are registering 1,500 cases every day against helmet-rule violators. But as expected, even the e-challans are not taken seriously. Only 40 per cent of the people who’ve been served e-challans are paying the fine. At key junctions such as Punjagutta, Ameerpet, Begumpet, Khairatabad and Lakdikapul, most two-wheeler riders do not wear helmets. “When I purchased a new Scooty last year, I used to wear my helmet regularly. But, I do not wear them these days as police too do not object,” said Eswar Prasad, a sales executive at Khairatabad. According to official statistics, between January and September 2009, 2,280 accidents involving two-wheelers occurred. while 2,212 were injured, 353 persons were killed in the Twin Cities. At least 300 accidents occur per day, while on weekends the number increases to 400. Pedestrians were the worst affected in road accidents and 813 of them were injured between January and September 2009. Precisely 634 two-wheeler vehicles were damaged. “We are coming up a with master plan to enforce the helmet rule in the Twin Cities very soon. Before we implement it, we are concentrating on creating awareness among vehicle riders on the importance of wearing a helmet,” said Ravi Chander. B Venkateswarlu, Joint Commissioner of Transport, Hyderabad says that two-wheeler owners are being asked to come for the registration process with their helmets and will be coached to keep them on their heads. By MOULI MAREEDU