Visakhapatnam: Day one of helmets rule enforcement on August 1 saw nearly 40 per cent compliance by city motorists.
Traffic cops say public awareness on road safety has to be increased as many motorists have purchased new protective head gear but they are not wearing the helmets while riding the bikes.
On August 1, city traffic police booked 1,282 cases and collected a fine of Rs 1.47 lakh for not wearing helmets. But the enforcement officers are a bit confused lot as chief secretary I.Y.R. Krishna Rao’s order to go slow on the enforcement and focus on campaign. But, the city cops have not received any official communication from the government to go slow.
ACPs (Traffic) K. Prabhakar and M. Srinivas said that they had seen most of the riders have a helmet but it is strapped to the side of the bike. Underlining the importance of strapping up the helmets, the traffic police said that not strapping up was as good as not wearing a helmet. They advised both motorcycle and pillion riders to wear helmets for their own safety.
Sources in the police said that majority of the youngsters, students and also women motorists were not wearing the helmet and citing silly reasons. The cops have taken up an awareness campaign for a period of over three months and had gone on the enforcement drive from April 1 and the actual enforcement has begun on August 1.
A few youngster could be seen sporting helmet even got innovative with their head guard stickers by pasting their name, blood group and also phone number with message asking the public to contact them in an emergency, said a traffic police inspector.
City Police Chief Amit Garg and ADCP (Traffic) K Mahendra Patrudu said that they wanted compliance close to 100 per cent as nearly 65-70 cent of the fatal accidents in a year in the city have been reported for not wearing the helmets. Mr Amit Garg said.
