City residents riding two-wheelers without wearing helmets over the weekend had to cough up fines as the police conducted an intensive drive to enforce the rule. The drive comes close on the heels of Friday’s directive from the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court Bench to Police Commissioners and Superintendents of Police in the 13 districts under its jurisdiction to make helmets mandatory for two-wheeler riders in accordance with Section 129 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.
A Division Bench also ordered that the police officers communicate the court orders to all their subordinates and make sure that no life was lost due to the failure of a two-wheeler rider to comply with the statutory requirement of wearing a helmet.
On Saturday and Sunday, teams of police officers took vantage positions in busy intersections at different parts of the city to intercept two-wheeler riders without helmets and levy spot fines of Rs. 100. At some places, police officers were also seen making announcements over the public address system fitted to their vehicles asking two-wheeler riders to comply with the law. On Saturday alone, over 700 violators were fined, police sources said.
“We have been enforcing the rule and we intensified the checks during the weekend when police officers are relatively free. We will continue the drive,” said City Police Commissioner Shailesh Kumar Yadav.
