‘No Helmet, No Fuel’ Rule Soon to Arrive In Bengaluru To Counter Road Accidents

To counter road accidents in Bengaluru, 'No Helmet, No Petrol' rule will come into effect from August 5 for the bikers in the city. In a time when road accidents are making headlines, this initiative comes as a major bid to promote road safety.

This initiative was first taken up by Noida on 1st June and Aligarh district administration on 24th June.

According to a Bengaluru Mirror report, P Harisekaran, additional commissioner of police (traffic), in his recent meetings with traffic police has directed all 44 inspectors, seven assistant commissioner of police an three deputy commissioner of police to initiate conversation with the fuel station owners and also ask them to join the traffic police and create an awareness and educate the public about the importance of wearing helmets. "We are asking the fuel station owners to cooperate with us and stop giving fuel to the two-wheeler riders who are not wearing a helmet. We are spreading awareness on the importance of wearing this protective hat and trying to educate people on the same."

Speaking along the same lines, president of the Bengaluru Petroleum Owners' Association, Ravindra said to The News Minute, "There have been a few selective outlets that have been approached by the traffic police as of now. This is a good initiate as it will increase the safety of the riders. We don't have a problem with this rule but in certain parts of the city, there are some rowdy people, who might vandalise the store if we deny them the service. So, we have to check upon this what the police proposes."

According to a study conducted by the United Nations (UN), helmets can increase the survival rate by 42% and helps to avoid around 69% of injuries in an accident.

the traffic police report of the year 2018 mentioned that, there were about 150 deaths due to fatal road accidents and 1296 cases of injuries to people due to the same. For the year 2017, the report shows around 140 deaths and 1311 injuries to people. Another report shows that in the year 2015, 1.77 crores were fined from the total crowd of Bengaluru for not wearing helmets while in 2016, the number was 1.88 crore and 2 crores in the year 2017.

"Rider says that wearing a helmet spoil their cool dude look and this leads to the negligence in wearing helmets. Especially children and teenagers say no to helmets while the adults think they are safe riders and thus, don't wear it. It is very dangerous to not wear a helmet as it may result in severe brain damage and death", said the senior traffic police officer to TNM.

Further, this same report also mentioned that in the year 2019, in the Bengaluru city between January 1 to June 30, the report says, around 105 bike riders have lost their lives due to 'no-helmet' and around 667 were seriously injured in the accident.