WEAR YOUR HELMET, SAVE YOUR LIFE
This Is One R R Patil Sermon That Bikers Would Do Well To Heed; Helmetless Riding Is Responsible For Dozens Of Deaths Every Year …….Bella Jaisinghani & Vijay V Singh | TNN
The first accessory that Ashok Kumar Jha bought with his new motorbike was a helmet. And that was even before the law made helmets mandatory.
His widow, Kavita, now believes that helmet must have been protecting Ashok from his fate. For, the first day he forgot to wear it, he died in a mishap. Ashok was 31 when he died in November 2004. He had become a father a few months back and the family had just moved into their new home in Nerul’s Sector 18.
Kavita today is left clutching memories and fighting battles — her in-laws have taken the compensation she got and a private bank continues to harass her for home-loan repayment despite there being an insurance clause — but she agrees with what the cops and home minister R R Patil have been clamouring for. “Force bikers to wear helmets,’’ Kavita said on Tuesday. “It’s the only way to prevent shattered families like mine,’’ she added.
Thane’s Shyamsundar Shingare cannot agree more with Kavita. The two have never met nor do they know each other but are bound by a common fate; the Shingares, too, has lost a family member in an accident in very similar circumstances.
Shyamsundar’s son, 21-oneyear-old Sanket, died in an accident while riding his bike this April; and he, too, was not wearing a helmet.
The event management student was going to meet a friend when his bike dashed against an electricity pole on Pokharan Road Number 2 in Thane.
“His head was smashed. He probably would have survived had he been wearing a helmet,’’ Shyamsundar said on Tuesday. Sanket, like Ashok, would usually wear a helmet. That night, however, he did without it. “It was probably because he was going somewhere very close by,’’ his father offered. Shyamsundar and his wife, Shaila, have now shifted from Thane to Kurla to get over the trauma.
Mehboob Khan is another dead biker who might have lived if he was wearing a helmet. “The injuries to which he succumbed were all on the head. I am sure he would have survived if he was wearing a helmet,’’ his mother, Abida, told TOI on Tuesday.
Mehboob was riding his bike in Bandra Reclamation, with friend Sultan as a pillion rider, when they were hit by a car this May 11. He stayed in coma till May 17 before dying.
“He often used to go to the Reclamation with friends,” Abida said. “I would have made sure he wore a helmet if I knew what riding without one could lead to,” she added.
THE LAW
“He often used to go to the Reclamation with friends,” Abida said. “I would have made sure he wore a helmet if I knew what riding without one could lead to,” she added.
THE LAW
Section 177 of the Motor Vehicles Act deals with helmetless riding.
It imposes a fine of Rs 100 for riding without helmets.
But this law is one of the most frequently disregarded in Mumbai; cops have penalised 255,735 helmetless bikers from 1 January 2006 to 20 May this year.
LEFT WITH MEMORIES: Shyamsundar Shingare and Shaila Shingare have shifted from their Thane home to get over the trauma of the death of their son, Sanket; the 21-year-old died this April after his bike dashed against an electricity pole
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Clampdown on helmetless bikers ………..Viju B | TNN
Mumbai: Traffic cops are going to tighten the screw on helmetless bikers at the more crowded and accident-prone spots in the city. The decision came a day after state home minister R R Patil appealed to Mumbai’s motorcyclists, including cops, not to forget the helmet at home when they hit the road.
Patil was right, senior police officials said on Tuesday, explaining that helmetless riding was one of the major causes of deaths and serious injuries among bikers and pillion riders. “A helmet cannot prevent an accident but it can surely prevent many of the deaths and grievous injuries that result from those accidents,’’ deputy commissioner of police (traffic) Harish Baijal said.
Cops have now decided to post more constables and patrol vans at places like Bandra Reclamation, Marine Drive, Worli, Western Express Highway and Eastern Express Highway. All these places have seen a spurt in accidents involving two-wheelers and officials say many of the deaths can be avoided if bikers wear the protective headgear. Mumbai logs three-digit fatalities in mishaps involving two-wheelers every year. This year, too, the number of deaths has topped 40 in the first four months.
But officials lament that these statistics have failed to instil any fear and sense of discipline in Mumbai’s bikers. Riders without helmets still form one of the most populous segments of traffic violators in the city. More than 2.5 lakh bikers have been fined for helmetless travelling in the two-and-a-half years between January 2006 and May 2008 (see graphic). “The Motor Vehicles Act allows us to impose a fine of only Rs 100 and that is why people flout rules with impunity,’’ an official said.
“There is another problem. Riders may be wearing helmets but not the people riding pillion; this may include children as well. It often happens that a rider escape because s/he is controlling the bike but the pillion rider, taken unawares, is thrown off the bike,’’ Baijal said.
Traffic studies abroad have shown that a motorcyclist, travelling at a speed of 55 kilometres per hour, will hit the ground at the same speed as a person jumping out of a fourth-floor window. “Impact at such speeds can be fatal and that is why the head needs protection,’’ Baijal said.
EYES WIDE SHUT: Cops say most bikers have ignored their advice to wear helmets