Team-BHP - Pictorial : Why you should wear a HELMET

My company does not allow entry to a biker without helmet and a driver without seatbelts. Those bikes and cars are forced to park outside the company premises which draw attention of the Traffic police, but people continue to do so:Frustrati.

Today the company management has sent out a circular to all the employees requesting everyone to wear helmets and seatbelts for entry into the premises. This is the result of a warning received from the Traffic police that they will issue challans to all the vehicles parked outside. If the vehicles found to be repeating the voilation, they will be towed away:D.

I am hoping to see some change from next week onwards. Will be updating this thread about the same.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoseVijay (Post 3596127)

The traffic police have put up a NO PARKING board infront of my office buildingclap:. Now, people park a little away from the No Parking Zone:Frustrati. I have seen a lot of improvement from my colleagues. Nearly 80% of those who used to park their vehicles outside the office premises have started wearing helmets and seatbelts, thus gaining entry into the premises. I hope the rest of them will change their hearts.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoseVijay (Post 3596127)

My company does not allow entry to a biker without helmet and a driver without seatbelts. I am hoping to see some change from next week onwards. Will be updating this thread about the same.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoseVijay (Post 3598973)

The traffic police have put up a NO PARKING board infront of my office buildingclap:.

All the efforts by my company management and the Traffic police have gone in vain:Frustrati. Traffic police approached my company management twice today highlighting the issue. From tomorrow onwards, the vehicles parked outside my office premises will be towed away without prior noticeclap:. The company management has sent out an official mail to all the employees. The below is a part of the mail.

Quote:

The Traffic police have informed us now that with immediate effect, they will start towing away vehicles parked out side (alongside the road) and invoke INR 1000/- penalty to the defaulter.

I was a very young road user when I learnt the importance of helmets. Was riding my bicycle to a nearby destination when I turned right and had the front tyre meet the acquaintance of a gap between two huge granite slabs covering a drain passing through the road. The gap was quite friendly and decided to keep the firm handshake going for some time, leading to my misfortune of falling left side down first and then sliding for a half meter of so. I got up, parted the tyre from the gap and pedaled to where I was going. On reaching there (I was barely a two minute ride away from where I had fallen), someone I knew looked at me very quizzically and asked me what happened.
I said I had suffered a fall and wondered how they knew, since my clothes had been dusted off and I didn't have any obvious injuries. And then I realized that my face was bleeding - the left side had abrasions and I could now start to feel the sting. Long story short, I made a quick (relatively speaking) recovery, and realized I was lucky.
I shudder to think what the outcome would have been if my head had hit the Tarmac instead. Since then, a helmet was a pre-requisite every time a rode a cycle /motorcycle.
Having not been on a bike for a long time, I haven't used a helmet for a while now. But I've recently decided to buy a bike - in fact, I'll get delivery this Wednesday. The first thing I did after booking the bike was to go out and buy a decent helmet and other gear. Another helmet is on the way and I'll keep adding other pieces of riding gear as I go along.
ATGATT is a motto I learnt the practical way. I'm glad I was about 4 feet tall and on a vehicle which could only do 15-20 kph when I did!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gannu_1 (Post 3660717)

Slightly old video - a bike stunt on a public road that went horribly wrong and the rider wasn't wearing a helmet.

Cochin folks would recognise this place - Fort Kochi.

Serves him right. IMO, such people should end up like this once. So that they know what not to do. No amount of advice will help them mend their habits.As elders say, Experience is the best medicine.

Looks the the biker wanted to do a stoppie, but got into a death wobble. New bike and the rider not knowing the braking pressure, tyre pressure required to do a stoppie did him . Oh and not wearing an helmet was the icing on the cake. It's as if asking fate to come hit him!

Quote:

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki (Post 3790216)

Agree 200%.

Such imbeciles deserve this. Brought it on himself.

To be honest, have to blame his so called friends as well. The stoppie or whatever nonsense he was trying was just for a photograph. You can see one of them preparing to click a photograph before he makes he grand re-entry.

Pictorial : Why you should wear a HELMET-why.jpg

Why on earth would you even let your friend try such ridiculous things? Moreso without a helmet? Because his Facebook friends will know it was him behind the stoppie and he's not some phoney? Grrrr!

As someone put it on Facebook- play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

:Frustrati:Frustrati

Trigger for this post: Been driving the scooter we bought a few weeks ago locally. Most days I dont spot a single scooter rider wearing helmet (I get gawked at for wearing one). I see more biker riders wear helmets in the city, especially the ones travelling longer distances and on roads where police is likely to intercept.

Clearly, wearing the helmet is damn uncomfortable - heat, sweat, and weight. 'Common sense' (assuming it is what seems obvious to majority), it seems, is wearing helmet also 'impedes' the sight and sound - important sense.

Most riders I spoken to say standard helmets dont allow them to see wide and hampers driving. Many also say helmets muffle road sounds (read other larger, faster vehicles) which is critical in chaotic traffic typical in our country (I agree on this point based on my limited riding experience).

Riders have other reasons too for not wearing helmet - going short distance, careful rider, 'saab upar waley ke haath mein hai', etc.

Discomfort and impairment of critical senses seem valid issues, impeding broader acceptance of a basic safety gear resulting in loss of too many lives.

In my opinion, convinience is very important and usually not given its due place. Convinience is why we do what we do and dont act even when the risks are high.

India apparently has more engineers (dont care about specializations, etc) than population of the 100 least populated countries in the World. That I still see most people not wearing helmets and reading in papers (and other fora) about the number of motorist being killed for the want of a helmet, makes me wonder why some of our talented folks are not putting their knowledge/skills to saving lives of fellow humans? Here is an opportunity that begs some innovative solutions.

Can we not have, for example helmets designed for better visibility and comfort under Indian sun? Say made of light weight transparent polymers to increase visibility/reduce claustrophobia. Something that supports active cooling mechanism - perhaps cheap, disposable liquid or chemical cooled layers that can be easily sloted into helmets! Surely material science has advanced enough to come up with something.

Disclaimer -
Above reasons are anecdotal, so more scientific survey/research needed to identify problems riders face (plenty already available too).
I recently started riding a scooter after not having riden a two-wheel for a decade. Between 2005-8 rode a bike for about 36K KMs all of it in the western suburbs of Mum. Out of which, exactly 17.4KMs were without a helmet because somebody stole it that day.