‘Not just lack of helmets, bad roads also cause fatality’

A division bench comprising Justices M Sathyanarayanan and R Hemalatha, on perusing the report regarding the implementation of the compulsory helmet rule, held that bad roads also contribute to accidents and that it is important that the roads are maintained well.

Posting the plea for further hearing to January 9, 2020, the bench directed the Registry to post the contempt petition pertaining to the enforcement of traffic rules and regulations regarding autos plying in Coimbatore city along with this petition after obtaining appropriate orders.

The status report-filed on behalf of the Director General of Police-submitted that up to October 2019, the total cases booked for not wearing helmets throughout Tamil Nadu except Chennai city were 47.87 lakh, as compared to 25.50 lakh cases registered during the corresponding period last year. This is an increase of around 88 per cent.

Also, the number of persons with helmet killed until October 2019 in the State except Chennai city was 347 while those fatalities without possession of helmet was 3,535. Last year, until October 2018, the number of such persons killed with helmet was 317 while those deaths occurring due to non-possession of helmet was as much as 4,480. Besides, the number of persons who sustained injuries in 2018 despite wearing helmets worked out to 2,114 instances and those without helmets accounted for 22,888 cases. This year, until October, it worked out to 2,204 cases of injuries with helmet on and 20,736 cases without helmets.

The status report further said that in an action against auto drivers and owners for not fixing rear-view mirrors, a total of 3023 cases were booked until October 2019. Last year, around 4,753 cases were booked for the sameviolation.