KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, March 24: Random helmet-checking drive being carried out by the district police’s traffic wing seems to have brought in a sense of fear among the two-wheeler riders in the steel city.
Concerned with the traffic police’s proactiveness in conducting the drive, Youth Congress state general secretary Rakesh Sahu has urged the traffic police authority to go slow with the two-wheeler riders and rather shift its focus towards the car, SUVs and other bigger vehicles instead.
Issuing a press statement, the Youth Congress leader has said that wearing helmets while riding is undoubtedly necessary in view of one’s safety but due to proactiveness on the part of the traffic constables and traffic police officials causes the two-wheeler riders to suffer immensely.
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Incidents of Accidents Due to Helmet-Checking Drive
“Not only the two-wheeler riders but even the traffic constables engaged in the helmet-checking drive have to fall victim to the drive by coming in front of the speeding motorcycle or Scooty while trying to intercept a vehicle,” stated Sahu while talking to The Jharkhand Story.
Trying to make home the point, Sahu has referred to a mishap in which a bonafide woman rider was injured at a helmet-checking point in Golmuri due to the enthusiastic traffic constables engaged in the drive recently. He stated that the woman who was injured seriously despite no fault of her had to get admitted to the Tata Main Hospital for the treatment of the injuries sustained in the mishap,
Sahu pointed out that in January, an overenthusiastic traffic constable sustained multiple injuries in his right leg at a helmet-checking point near Sai Temple in the CH Area in Bistupur.
He stated that a Scooty rider was coming towards Bistupur at moderate speed. As the rider was without a helmet, the constable who had kept himself covered up behind a tree along the road, had suddenly jumped in front of the Scooty, causing the vehicle to get imbalanced and ultimately hit the constable. The injured constable had to be taken to Tata Main Hospital immediately.
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Call for Awareness Over Fear-Based Enforcement
The Youth Congress leader said that the traffic police are no doubt doing a commendable job by enforcing two-wheeler riders to wear helmets but the drive should not be carried out in a frightening way.
Rakesh Sahu, however, declared that he would shortly launch a traffic awareness campaign in which his party functionaries will make the vehicle riders know the importance of wearing helmets and also about keeping the mandatory papers with them while riding the vehicle.
