Putting safety first, the Bengaluru police will now penalise motorists not wearing helmets which comply with ISI certification or comply with standards of the Bureau of Indian Standards.
However, commuters will be punished only from February 1 and in the meanwhile the Traffic Department is trying to educate users about the importance of proper helmets.
“A sudden enforcement may create panic and inconvenience among motorists. Hence, we have decided to create awareness about the issue. After a month, there will be a strict enforcement of the rule against using non-ISI certified helmets,” Additional Commissioner of Police, Traffic, R Hitendra told The Hindu.
The official Twitter handles of the Bangalore Traffic Police departments have also been tweeting about the importance of helmets.
A United Nations study says that a proper helmet can improve chances of accident survival of by 42% and helps avoid 69% of injuries to riders.
Incidentally, the city police initiatives come after Karnataka Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy praised the Mysuru police for launching a drive against half helmets or sub-standard helmets.
The Home Department had also passed a directive to ensure the same recently.
Not only Bengaluru and Mysuru, Karnataka police chief Neelamani N Raju has directed the state police to ban non-conforming helmets in the state, reports The Times of India.
All the five police commissioners —Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubballi-Dharawad and Belagavi and range IGPs have also been communicated the same, the report said.
Statistics of the Bengaluru Traffic Department show that offences related to wearing helmet has only risen over the three years.
In 2015, the number of riders fined for not wearing helmets were 1.77 crore. The same number gradually increased to 1.88 cr in 2016 and more than 2 cr in 2017 respectively.
Until, 2016 pillion riders were not required to wear helmets by law.
But here, the situation has improved since 2016. The number of such violations decreased in 2017 by 5 lakh even though the ban came in force much after the year started in 2016.
Safety expert MN Sreehari welcomed the move. "It is not just a rule, it has to be followed. Youngsters have a habit of not wearing helmet. They should not only wear helmet to appease policemen but should do it on their own for their safety and the helmet should completely cover the user's ears and have ISI mark," he said.
