Realising that college students are more vulnerable to road accidents as most of them have motorcycles but don’t wear helmet for safety and several of them drive rashly, the Vijayapura Police have decided to spread awareness on this critical issue by urging the college authorities to ensure that students are permitted to enter the college premises only if they are wearing a helmet while riding.
The police have decided to use a video documentary to spread this message and educate students on wearing helmet for safety.
A documentary is being prepared with the help of professionals where students would be shown the grave effects of not wearing a helmet while riding.
The documentary will have visuals of students ending in fatal accidents for neglecting to wear a helmet while riding and their families suffering because of the loss of their young ones.
“The documentary will be ready within a few days as the final details are being added. After the documentary is ready, we will start using it to educate students in colleges,” Superintendent of Police Prakash Nikam has said.
The drive would be first started in the city as it has more number of colleges and higher number of students owning motorcycles. The city has a total of 78 pre-university and 15 degree colleges.
Inspectors attached to different police stations would be visiting colleges and showing the video to spread awareness on the fatal effects of neglecting to wear a helmet while riding.
“Besides holding awareness drives, we will be urging college authorities to make it mandatory for every student who owns a motorcycle to wear a helmet while riding. Do not allow them entry college, if they fail to comply with this. We hope that our suggestion would be accepted by colleges, and also implemented to save the lives of students,” Mr. Nikam said.
He said that the reason for the police opt for this type of drive is because even after the government issued an order making it compulsory to wear helmets while riding and the police imposing fine for violation of the rule, yet students are not taking the matter seriously.
“Moreover, if the traffic policemen keep checking only for helmet rule violation, they will find no time to perform other duties related to traffic management. Thus, we need cooperation from the Education Department to implement the rules strictly,” he said.
Deputy Director, PU Education, J.S. Pujari, has said that the department would extend full cooperation to the police in the awareness drive.
