Madurai Police Commissioner springs a surprise for Independence day. He announced two days earlier that two-wheeler riders must wear helmets and the rule will be strictly enforced (again) from Independence day.
The immediate provocation seems to be that recent road-accident deaths were mostly two-wheelers riders with head injuries. Traffic police have started imposing fines for riders without helmets at various points. But riders are not yet returning to helmet usage in large numbers. Earlier it will be 1 in 100, now it seems to be about 10 riders out of 100 use helmets.
Police have also took up a persuasive way from Independence day. They are now visiting schools to ask kids to remind their parents, elder brothers & sisters to wear helmets while riding two-wheelers. After all marketers are targeting kids to persuade their parents into buying consumer durables.
With the rains, the city roads were full of sand dust, which alone could force people to wear full mask helmets. With improved roads, and higher capacity bikes, the average speeds have actually increased in arterial roads (except in peak hours). But Maduraiites are still very defiant in using helmets, why?
I couldn’t resist posting this link. Even though the pictures were taken in Chennai, the situations were too similar to our city. I take it for granted to see whole families on a motorcycle in city roads. I have also carried kids like this.
This blog post was made in 2006 but very much contemporary. Have a look at wonderful 5-part series by Basia.
The June 1st and 2nd were hectic days. It was unbelievable that 95% of the two wheeler riders wear helmets. Most of them were full-mask helmets. Even though two-wheeler riders are required by a central law to wear helmet, it was not in force in Tamilnadu. TN government finally forced to wear helmets in 6 cities from June 1 and the rest of TN from July 1.
The Chief Minister’s tactical statement on 2nd June took the sting off the order without actually scraping it. And it’s back to square one. On 4th June, less than 3 percent riders wear helmets.
It’s amazing how many will comply if forced by Government.
The monsoon is on. It’s raining atleast twice a week. Widespread digging on the roads for underground drainage, phone lines etc makes the puddles and slush permanent. The city now looks like one big construction site.
If you ever wanted to taste the ”Madurai mann” (sentimentimentally smelling and tasting the sand… or soil) now is the best time. All you have to do is mount on a 2-wheeler and ride without any mask or helmet. As an added bonus, you can watch fellow 2-wheelers zipping across in all directions right in front of you, at maniacal speeds.
