Pune – Hearing a public interest litigation, PIL 9 (2019) the Maharashtra High Court Nagpur Bench has taken a serious offence for not following its order of supply of supply 2 ISI helmets to the buyer of two-wheeler and it has made an opinion to ban the registration of two-wheeler in Maharashtra.
The PIL stated that the Rule 138(4)(f) of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, which prescribes that at the time of purchase of the two wheeler, the manufacturer of the two wheeler shall supply a protective headgear conforming to specifications prescribed by the Bureau of Indian Standards under the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 1986.
However, in current scenario, the manufacturers are violating the laws and do not supplying any protective headgear at the time of the sale of two-wheeler, further increasing the threat of fatal road accidents.
The dealers who have been summoned and made party to the PIL has given an Affidavit before the court that 8 leading Two-wheeler Companies are supplying the vehicle without the Helmet or Headgear so they are not able to provide the same to the buyer. The Court has directed that an intimation of the same to be sent to these all 8 manufacturers along with SIAM to strictly implement the decision of supply 2 helmets meeting the BSI standards to the buyer by the manufacturer.
Court has directed to Transport Commissioner to ensure that the prescribed ISI helmets asper BSI standards to be supplied by the manufacturer failing so the court to ban the registration of two wheelers in entire Maharashtra.
It is imperative that, not wearing helmets killed more than 3,500 riders and over 1,700 pillion riders in the state last year. With this, the state was among the top three states with the highest road deaths in this category. Also, the state has not done well in complying with laws regarding use of seatbelts. More than 600 motorists and over 1,000 co-travellers died for not wearing seatbelts last year. In this group, the state is among the top five in India to have the highest road fatalities.
Experts are in the view that compliances are directly linked to the enforcement on the ground by the police and in the absence of infrastructure improvement, the quickest way to reduce fatalities is by ensuring compliance of law with helmets,” said Rajni Gandhi, Member of the road safety NGO, TRAX
In Mumbai alone, helmetless riding was a cause of concern in 2016 with 4.24 lakh challans being issued. But it dipped to 1.45 lakh challans in 2017 and 1.14 lakh in 2018.
People often think that if they are travelling a short distance, it won’t make a difference if they wear a helmet or not. But a lot of serious injuries around the world occur just 1 or 2 kms from home. A short trip is no protection. Some people wear helmets only with the objective of evading challan and do not strap it under the chin correctly. This is not going to help as a helmet which is not correctly fastened could fly off when there is a crash,” said Rajeev Kapoor, President Two-Wheeler Helmets Manufacturers Association who himself is a crusader against the fake helmets ad fatal injuries.
The World Health Organisation’s global report on road safety (2018) said that head injuries were a leading cause of death among motorised two and three-wheeler users. The right use of a helmet can lead to 42% reduction of risk in fatal and 69% in head injuries, the report said.
So if you are planning to buy a two wheeler in Maharashtra just insist for 2 ISI helmets otherwise may be you are not able to get your vehicle register.
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