Death on wheels

Guwahati: City bikers are riding high on danger. With no limit on speed, they are ending up with 10 accidents on an average, including head injuries and even death, every day.
"The minimum average deaths due to bike accident in the city is 20-30 a month. We register 70-90 cases of accidents in the city in a month," said Bibeka Nanda Das, superintendent of police (traffic).
The alarming rate of accidents has even compelled city neuro-surgeons to appeal to the people to launch an awareness campaign among parents and the administration to reverse the situation.So traumatic are the accidents, that the young doctors felt a joint initiative would bring about a semblance of control over the situation.
"More than 35 head injury cases are registered in our hospital daily. Of this, 10 arise from bike mishaps," said Dr B K Baishya, head of the neuro surgery department at the Gauhati Medical Hospital.
According to records, speeding bikes cause more than five deaths on an average every month. The police said two-wheelers are the biggest rule breakers, more than three and four wheelers. They are also not suitably punished.
"Although we register cases after accidents we cannot prove bikers had violated the speed limit in court. For one, we do not have speedometers that are used by traffic police in other cities," said a traffic police inspector. But the traffic SP said, "We have recently asked for speedometers. It's in our requisition list," said Das.
Since the punishment for an erring rider is a fee of Rs 100, it does not make much of a difference. "They speed, violate rules and when caught pay a small fine. No wonder they are not getting tamed," said the inspector.
Sources said that during the last 12 months, more than 10,000 accidents were registered all over the state. They further said that in the past 12 months, the city police collected more than Rs 2 crore as fine from violators.
In the same period, more than 10 lakh vehicles, including two-wheelers, were registered in the state. "As per data, five lakh vehicles are now plying on city roads," said a transport officer. Traumatised with the horror of road accidents, doctors said, "Mass awareness is very necessary. We doctors urge the people to launch a mass awareness campaign to prevent bike accidents." The traffic SP urged citizens to inform the police as soon as possible about any bike found speeding and violating traffic norms.