Traffic police impose fines on pillion riders sans helmet in Visakhapatnam

In a move that is intended to bolster road safety in Visakhapatnam, the traffic police have made it mandatory for pillion riders of two-wheelers to wear a helmet. Trying to enforce the same, city’s traffic cops have started imposing fines on two-wheeler riders if the pillion riders are caught without a helmet.

The use of helmets has already been made compulsory for two-wheeler riders. However, it has been learned that in many road accidents while the riders were saved due to the headgear, the pillion riders inevitably succumbed to the head injuries sustained, which, in a better scenario, could have been avoided had the deceased donned helmets.

It has also been learned that the majority of the road accidents in the city, from January to February 2018, were caused by two-wheelers.

The Traffic police have started penalizing the students and youngsters in Visakhapatnam, for not following the instructions.

“Since wearing a helmet is mandatory for pillion riders under Section 129 of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, we have launched imposing fine ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 200 for bike riders without a head guard of their pillion riders. Now, our focus is to catch the youngsters and students, who have been ignoring our instructions. Later we will also sensitise middle-aged people on the use of helmets for both riders and pillion riders,” Ramesh Kumar, ADCP (Traffic), was quoted as saying.

In  2017, the officials launched the much-talked-about ‘No-Helmet, No-Petrol’ rule which was deemed to be a major step towards making most of the two-wheeler riders in the city don headgear.

The story was first published in Deccan Chronicle.