VELLORE: The Christian Medical College has made the wearing of helmets and seat-belts (for four-wheelers) mandatory for all its staff, students and faculty members from Monday. CMC director, Dr Sunil Chandy, told Express, the initiative has been taken to create public awareness of the importance of road safety.
In addition to making helmets compulsory for those drive two-wheelers, Dr Chandy said, “We have also made the wearing of seat belts compulsory for four-wheeler users in the college and hospital campuses.”
Dr Chandy added, “It is not just to protect staffers from accidents but for sending a message to the general public on the need for road safety and protective measures.”
The college and hospital administrations have issued instructions that violation of these protective measures would incur a penalty. Compulsory helmet wearing and seat belts were introduced by Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) several years back and CMC has become the second institution to promote safe-driving in the city.
CMC recently introduced a spit-free campaign banning spitting inside the campus to prevent spread of tuberculosis as part of the TB control initiative jointly undertaken by the CMC and the Rotary club of Vellore. This is a larger part of the spit-free drive for making Vellore free from tuberculosis in the next five years.