To communicate a strong message to people on road safety, the Visakhapatnam police have not given any leverage to their own men. In fact, 671 police personnel were booked in 2016 for riding without wearing helmet.
Those booked include constables, head constables, writers, assistant sub-inspectors and even a case was booked against an SI who was told to pay the fine.
According to a survey by the traffic police, despite making helmets compulsory for two-wheeler riders, 40 per cent of the motorcyclists do not wear helmet.
“Being law enforcers, we cannot take rules for granted and flout them. We have to lead by example and the Commissioner of Police has issued a notice that no policeman riding a two-wheeler can enter the police stations or the Commissioner’s office without wearing a helmet,” said ADCP (Traffic) K. Mahendra Patrudu.
“This action against policemen should send a strong signal to the people, and we will be stepping up the drive in the next few days,” he added. Though cases against drivers for not wearing helmet has come down, the number of fatal accidents has increased.
While the number of helmet cases booked in 2015 was 1,28,898, in 2016 it dropped to 76,304. At the same time, the number of fatal accidents has increased from 325 in 2015 to 342 in 2016 and cases of grievous injuries went up from 701 to 795.
According to ACP (Traffic) Kinjarapu Prabhakar, 40 per cent of the accidents involved two-wheelers and in 60 per cent cases the victims who died of head injuries did not wear helmets. “It is seen that the violators of the helmet rule are mostly in the age group of 18 to 25 years,” said Mr. Prabhakar.
