Bengaluru: Are you about to leave your house on your two-wheeler to drop or pick up someone, see to that you carry an extra helmet as from Wednesday if your pillion is not wearing a helmet, you will be penalized for the offence. Starting Wednesday, the traffic policemen along with Road Transport Office (RTO) authorities have formed teams, who will spread across the city, and start penalizing riders if their pillion riders are not wearing helmets.
For the first offence, the rider will be penalized Rs 100 and Rs 300 for the second offence. But for third offence the rider will be sent to court along with his driving licence with a recommendation for its suspension. “Traffic policemen along with RTO inspectors will strictly enforce the law from Wednesday as we have given ample time for the road users by spreading the message, awareness campaigns and educative measures. Our men will start booking cases treating this offence (pillions without helmet) like any other one, however, if the pillion riders are children or infants, the rider would be let off with a warning,” said M.A. Saleem, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic).
According to Saleem, as of now only 20 per cent of pillion riders are wearing helmets after our awareness campaigns and efforts on educating road users. The traffic police along with transport department inspectors will spread out at prominent junctions in the city and start imposing fines. “Our men will also keep a tab on the helmet brands used and it should meet the required standard specifications conforming to the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) with an ISI mark on it,” a senior police officer said.
Helmet shops may see rush
Once the traffic police begins penalizing the two-wheeler riders, a mad rush at helmet shops across the city is expected on Wednesday. “Keeping our fingers crossed and our helmet stocks full, we are expecting a large turnout of customers on Wednesday once the cops start booking violations against the motorists,” said a helmet shop owner on J.C. Road adding that there won’t be any hikes or differences in pricing of helmets as we have stocks of standard branded helmets for all our customers according to their budget.
College imposes rule
Baldwin Methodist College in the city has started a unique initiative on its students to make it mandatory to wear helmets while biking even inside the college premises. The college authorities will not allow any biker to enter college premises without helmet or even if a pillion hasn't worn helmet. “One may ask us as to why are we checking at college premises. Well, it is observed that in most of the colleges, the students somehow try to sneak into the campus without wearing helmets.
In other cases, the students tend to remove helmets once they find there is no cop on the road. So, we want to ensure that our students always wear helmets all the time while they are driving. We have launched this campaign to let inside a biker only if both biker and pillion (in case of a pillion rider accompanying a student) only with helmets,” said college principal Joshua Samuel.
