earing helmet is not sufficient, strapping it properly is also equally important. That is the lesson one has to learn from the tragic death of a helmet-wearing bike rider in Punjagutta.
In fact, not strapping the helmet properly is as good as not wearing it, say the police. Thirty-three-year-old Kiran Kumar, working in a shopping mall, started for his house on a bike around 8 p.m. four days ago. As he went up the Greenlands-Begumpet fly-over bridge, a water tanker came close to him.
Apparently, the tanker driver was trying to overtake the motorcyclist. The tanker’s rear left part hit the bike’s handle. Kumar lost balance and was flung into the air. “He didn’t properly strap the helmet which came off. He banged his head against the bridge railing while falling on the pavement,” Punjagutta Inspector S. Mohan Kumar said.
The helmet fell on the bridge while Kumar suffered serious head injuries. Police rushed to the spot and shifted him to Gandhi hospital where doctors declared him brought dead. There were no injuries on Kiran barring those on his head, the investigators said.
He would have been alive if the helmet had not slipped, feel the police. The number of two-wheeler riders wearing helmets had gone up considerably but some are not realising that failing to strap it is dangerous. “Some are not strapping the helmet belt. A few are seen wearing helmets while the bikes are moving, which too is more risky,” say the traffic police officials. To avoid fine for helmet rule violation, some bike riders are using ‘caps made of metal’ which are worn by workers in construction industry. “These are in no way alternatives to helmets and cannot save lives of persons when they suffer head injuries,” say Mr. Mohan.
If a two-wheeler rider is run over by a vehicle, the helmet might not be of much help. For example, a man in his early 30s, K. Rambabu, died after an RTC bus ran over him near Gudenmet crossroads in Balanagar police station area five months ago. Rambabu was wearing helmet but came under rear wheels of the bus.
