Helmets please

How often have we seen youngsters zipping past on their bikes, weaving in and out of traffic with daredevilry; often, they pose a risk to pedestrians and to themselves. And this risk of injury, for the rider, is usually compounded by the fact that they rarely wear helmets.

The death of three motorcycle-borne youths — one a 20-year-old girl — on Wednesday on the Western Express Highway when their bike was hit by a heavy vehicle is a tragic reminder of the consequences of flouting this simple — and mandatory — safety requirement. It highlights the one aspect of road safety that hasn’t in recent times received enough attention from the traffic police: the compulsory use of helmets, both for the rider and the pillion.

For the traffic administration body of any city, ensuring road safety has many aspects: from getting road-users to respect all traffic rules and weeding out drink driving, to enforcing regulations such as the wearing of seatbelts in four-wheelers and helmets by two-wheeler riders.

While Delhi has its killer Blueline buses, Mumbai, till very recently, was haunted by speeding drink drivers. A highly visible and largely successful campaign against drinking and driving in this city got the attention of everyone and also won the support of the citizenry. Here, it was an energetic blend of awareness-raising and strict enforcement that produced results. But for some reason, Mumbai police seem to have given up on the helmet issue.

In the case of the three youths who perished in this particular mishap, the real cause of the accident is still to be ascertained; we cannot say with certainty that helmets would have saved their lives. But it is worth noting that none of them were wearing helmets and all three sustained severe head injuries. Clearly, helmets would have saved them from injury to some extent, and reduced the chances of fatality. That these were youngsters, all in their early 20s, makes such gratuitous loss of life even more unpalatable.

It is common sense that of all the motorists on the road, it is the two-wheeler riders who are most at risk, exposed as they are to other vehicles, unlike those traveling in four-wheelers, for instance. It is therefore imperative that the Mumbai police accord the highest priority to enforcing the helmet rule. They ought to adopt the zero tolerance approach that they did in their ‘Don’t Drink and Drive’ campaign.

Once riders get the unequivocal message that they cannot get away with driving sans helmets, compliance would follow. This may not happen overnight, but a sustained awareness campaign, combined with strict enforcement, could end up saving many more lives.