COIMBATORE: Coimbatore City Police warned people riding pillion of stringent action if found without helmet from Monday. As per police, a detailed study of the fatalities in two-wheeler accidents conducted by the road safety committee revealed that the highest rate of fatality was because the two-wheeler riders and people riding pillion didn’t wear helmet.
Following this, police warned stringent action not only on two-wheeler riders, but also on pillion riders who don’t wear helmets based on the Motor Vehicle Act. The city police have also planned to give them awareness training about the importance of wearing a helmet in the Traffic Park in the city for a period of one week.
“A total of seven Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras have already been set up in major junctions in the city. The cameras have been connected to the server of Intelligent Traffic Management System, a web application developed by National Informatics Centre.
The cameras can automatically detect violations, including travelling without helmets and the feeds will be cross-checked at the concerned police stations before a challan is issued. Besides, traffic police will take photos of violations manually and upload them to the NIC server. We have also planned to conduct vehicle checks across the city to enure that people wear helmets,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police N Mathivanan.
“If either the rider or the person riding pillion fails to wear a helmet, a penalty of `1,000 will be imposed on them. Children should also wear helmets,” he added. The state government had made it mandatory for bikers and people riding pillion to wear helmets in August 2018 according to Section 129 of the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988. The government has also instructed the authorities to enforce the Madras High Court’s direction on helmets.