The industrial township of Pimpri Chinchwad has a new, independent Police Commissionerate established by the Maharashtra State Home Department in April 2018. Based on a PIL filed in The Bombay High Court in 2003, The Bombay High court has directed Maharashtra government to strictly implement the section 129 of Motor Vehicle Act 1989 in the entire state of Maharashtra from 1st July 2005. Taking cognizance of it, the Pune Police Commissioner office has been carrying out a helmet compliance drive in Pune city since 1st January 2019 in their jurisdiction. However, there seemed to be no indications of implementation of the helmet rule in the Pimpri Chinchwad jurisdiction.
In view of this, Parisar, an NGO based in Pune, which is also a member of the District Road Safety Committee felt it imperative to undertake a helmet compliance survey in the Pimpri Chinchwad region.
A survey was done in February 2019 by taking photographs at 7 prominent intersections across Pimpri Chinchwad area at peak and off-peak hours of the day. During the survey, total 3950 vehicles were covered (3195 single riders and 755 double riders). An analysis of the photographs showed the usage of helmets at 38%, a shocking indicator of how callously road safety is adhered to.
A single rider helmet compliance was at 49% and in cases where the rider was carrying a passenger, it was 30%. It was a shocking revelation that the pillion rider compliance was an abysmal 2.12%.
It was however interesting to note that at the Hinjewadi intersection, where again there was no enforcement taking place, the compliance rate was fairly high at 82%.
Advocacy officer, Sandeep Gaikwad said, “Many MNC, BPOs have already taken a policy decision to comply with helmet rule in their respective premises which is why we see there is pretty good helmet compliance scenario at Hinjewadi junction. The need of the hour is that Pimpri Chinchwad traffic police must focus on rest junctions and start penalising helmetless riders. Then only the helmet usage will see a great surge and injuries and fatalities will come down drastically.”
For further details contact- Sandeep Gaikwad,
Mob: 9702830546
Email: sandeep@parisar.org
