2.4 lakh booked for driving sans helmet

Traffic police officials along with Mumbai city police in the last 24 days have registered cases against more than two lakh people and collected fines of more than Rs 2 crore for not wearing helmet while riding two-wheelers. Early in this year the traffic police launched a massive drive against those riding two-wheelers without wearing helmets.

From January 18 to February 10 the traffic police fined around 2,43,405 people who were not wearing helmets while driving two-wheelers on different roads in the city. Some of the riders were seen arguing with the traffic policemen on duty. But the cops continued to take action.

The Mumbai police started a special drive against helmetless driving earlier this year — since January 2 — and has taken action against lakhs of people so far.

Commenting on the drive, the police said the traffic control branch has carried out such drives regularly in the past and that the drive has only been intensified now. “There is a Supreme Court ruling making it mandatory for two-wheeler riders to use helmets. It is for the safety of riders. We appeal to the citizens to use helmets. We have also asked the police to wear helmets while riding two-wheelers and also while riding pillion,” said a traffic policeman.

Out of the around two lakh cases registered in the 24-day period, the majority of the cases were registered by the city police: 24,984 cases were registered in the South Mumbai area, 48,090 were registered in Central Mumbai, 37,508 in East Mumbai and 25, 769 in West Mumbai. The traffic police registered 59,076 cases all over Mumbai.

In an earlier drive against helmetless driving conducted from January 2 to January 5, the police had penalised around 48,000 persons for the offence over the four-day period.

DCP Dhananjay Kulkarni said, “Although our officials are taking so much effort to habituate people into wearing helmet which is good for them, commuters are still not getting the point of this campaign. We will continue our work till commuters follow the rules. ”