50% of two-wheeler riders use low-quality helmets in Vizag: Survey

Visakhapatnam: A traffic police survey has revealed that around 50 percent of the two-wheeler riders in Vizag city are using low-quality head-guards.

The city traffic police have observed that due to vigorous enforcement drive, over 90 percent of two-wheeler riders are wearing the head guard in the city. However, some motorists are using low-quality (Non-ISI mark) helmets to just evade police checks.

Vizag City police chief Manish Kumar Sinha said the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a steep increase in the use of two-wheelers for commuting as people are wary to travel in public transport.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Vizag city, Ch Adinarayana said the number of vehicles in Vizag has reached 13 lakh in 2022. Ten years before, the number was just 5.5 lakh. Two-wheeler continues to dominate Vizag roads, accounting for around 80 percent (over 9 lakh two-wheelers) of its total vehicular population, followed by cars with over 12 percent share.

"We have recently conducted a random survey on usage of helmets by the motorist and the quality of the head-guards. The survey revealed that around 50 percent of the two-wheeler riders are not wearing quality head-guard and they are compromising for safety," he said.

The non-ISI-marked helmet costs around Rs400-Rs600, while the cost of the ISI-marked good quality head-guard range from Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000. "It is very unfortunate that some motorists are comprising of low-quality helmets citing that the ISI-Mark head-guard are costlier without knowing the consequences in the event of road-crashes," Adinarayana added.

Union Ministry's Transport Research Wing on Road Accidents said on average at least 1,800 to 1,900 two-wheeler riders die because they do not wear crash helmets. Similarly, over 700 pillion riders die for not wearing the head-guard in Andhra Pradesh.

Deputy Transport Commissioner, Vizag, GC Raja Ratnam said that they have been booking cases against the two-wheeler riders for not wearing the head-guards. "We are also creating awareness among the two-wheeler riders about the use of ISI-Mark helmets. We will register cases against them if they failed to wear the ISI-Mark head-guards," he added.

Traffic Police and Transport Department officials said that Section 129 of the IMV Act says that two-wheeler riders should have to use protective headgears and they have to check the quality of the headgear.