The ‘wear helmet’ campaign of the Chittoor police has saved 23 lives in the district in a short span of 18 days since its launch on September 8. Of this, 19 persons, mostly youth, were first time users of helmet.
S.V. Rajasekhar Babu, SP, told the media here on Tuesday that in September 2016, 125 accidents took place resulting in 61 casualties, including 30 due to violation of helmet rule, and injuries to 153 people.
However, the number of accidents this September (till 25th) came down to 52 with 29 casualties and 77 injured persons. Of the 29 deaths, 16 cases involved two-wheeler accidents.
Among those hurt, 23 had escaped without head injuries thanks to wearing helmet. The youth, who practically understood the importance of wearing a helmet, had approached the police to undertake the unique ‘Thank You Helmet’ rallies all over the district, the SP said.
The first leg of the motorcycle rally was planned in Chittoor town on September 29, with the participation of over 3,000 students from various government and private educational institutions.
Similar rallies would be held in Puttur, Madanapalle and Palamaner sub-divisions, involving youth.
Interestingly, four students who recently wore helmets and escaped road mishaps with minor bruises straight drove to the respective area police stations in the Palamaner sub-division to thank the police and to join the wear helmet campaign, he said.
Mr. Rajasekhar Babu said 15 road safety mobile parties had been deployed along the 15 vital routes connecting Chittoor to Bangalore, Chennai, Vellore and Tirupati.
“The police personnel and the community police officers would click photos of those riding motorbikes without helmets along with their registration numbers and forward them to the road transport officials, who in turn would send notices to the addresses of the violators cautioning them to desist from helmetless drive besides imposing penalties,” the SP said
This norm could bring good results in just one week and they wanted to achieve cent per cent results by October end, he said.
No fuel rule
The official said the ‘no-helmet, no fuel’ rule was being implemented strictly in all the 175 fuel stations in the district.
