Helmetless pillion riders to face heat

Coimbatore: The city police on Saturday announced plans to make helmets compulsory for the people riding pillion on two-wheelers from June 26. They said the pillion riders caught without helmets would be fined and sent to the traffic park for a week to teach the importance of wearing a helmet.The move comes after the road safety meeting that district collector Kranthi Kumar Pati convened at the collectorate on Thursday found that 23 of the 30 two-wheeler riders killed in the road accidents last month hadn’t worn a helmet.The meeting was attended by police officials, state and national highways officials, regional transport officials and representatives of NGOs.At the meeting, G Manuneethi, divisional engineer (road safety), Coimbatore circle, had suggested that the pillion riders should be compulsorily made to wear helmets. Subsequently, the city police issued a press note on Friday night, stating they had decided to make helmets compulsory for the pillion riders from Monday to prevent fatal accidents and ensure safety while travelling on the roads.N Mathivanan, deputy city police commissioner, said special teams were formed to conduct vehicle checks from Monday and they would impose a fine of 1,000 on the two-wheeler and pillion riders caught not helmets. “We have advised the cops to take photos of the pillion riders without helmets and issue challans.”He said they had installed CCTV cameras under the integrated traffic management system at Lakshmi Mills, JM Bakery, Gandhipuram and classic tower traffic signals and the footage would be utilized to penalize the bike and pillion riders without helmets.
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