With many motorists in the city still unwilling to wear helmets, Chennai’s Traffic Police are now resorting to innovative ways to cajole them into falling in line.
Under constant pressure from a watchful Madras High Court to improve enforcement of the helmet rule, police personnel are now roping in schoolchildren to help persuade their parents to wear helmets while riding on the roads.
The police have also arranged to have shamianas erected at key road junctions, where helmetless two-wheeler riders are welcomed by the police with some flowers or a gift and asked to gather for some refreshments.
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Juice and tea
The pleasantly surprised captive audience is then plied with fruit juice or sugarcane juice or even hot tea and biscuits — paid for by the police officers from their own pockets — and a sermon on the risks to one’s life and limb from riding without a helmet.
The aim, officials say, is to convince the errant motorists of the need to wear the mandatory helmet.
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Given Chennai’s humid climate and ineffective implementation by enforcing authorities, most of the city’s motorists were until recently indifferent to the need to don a helmet while riding. The rule requiring both the driver of the two-wheeler and the pillion rider to compulsorily wear a helmet, therefore, largely remained on paper. Now acting on a public interest litigation petition, a Division Bench of the Madras High Court has been issuing ultimatums to the police on a weekly basis to take strict action against helmetless travel on two-wheelers.
Appeal to students
“We approached school students in our area, not for conducting mere awareness campaigns, highlighting the ill-effects of accidents. We appealed to them to ask their parents or relatives to wear helmets while going out in two-wheelers,” said J.P. Prabakaran, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Madhavaram. “And we caught parents at the gates of schools when they came to drop their wards. That was an embarrassing moment, when we asked them to wear a helmet,” he added.
Manavalan, a reserve inspector on Anna Salai, said, “As per our additional commissioner’s instructions, we collect at least 50 persons here and explain to them with love and affection. Buying tea and biscuits, we tell them: “Please wear helmet.” We are here to reform them.”
Police also show graphic pictures of accident victims, where the the victim was riding without a helmet, to helmetless motorists in wedding or community halls. “Motorists were also taken to trauma wards and shown accident victims to realise their mistake. Though we are effectively enforcing rules, there should be attitudinal change among the public,” stressed V.K. Surendranath, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Anna Nagar.
“One day, a motorist was stopped for not wearing a helmet. On questioning by us, he parked his vehicle in the middle of road and left the place after hurling abuse at us,” recalled an officer in Aminjikarai, who declined to be identified. “We were dumbfounded. He did not realise the importance of helmet. We were unable to convince him,” the officer added.
“Our power is limited now,” said another officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Unlike in the past, we cannot chase the motorist and nab them for issuing a challan for traffic violation. We will be blamed if the motorist falls down during the chase,” asserted the officer from Pondy Bazaar.
More than 44 lakh two-wheelers are registered in the city, which has a population of more than one crore. Apart from these, vehicles registered in other districts and States also hit the roads every day. Only 2,500 traffic personnel are available to regulate the traffic in the city. Of them, 210 officers — sub-inspectors and inspectors — alone can book cases. Every day, 10,500 cases are booked by them.
Last year, 7.8 lakh cases were booked for helmetless riding. Now, it has touched 6.7 lakh as on date.
“Pressure is on us from one side,” said another officer. “Many advocates and political party functionaries still don’t wear helmets and violate rules. Motorists wear helmets only at the time of crossing us or otherwise put it on the petrol tank [of their motorcyle]. They should change themselves,” the officer resignedly added.