[pavi]

Insane is a mild word to describe these people. As some one had described 'Wear a helmet to avoid hell met'. I sincerely pray better sense prevail among these people and they also understand the importance of wearing helmet.

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted by Sherlocked

I am of this belief that the rule of wearing helmets and seatbelts should only be recommendatory and not mandatory.

I respect your opinion but do not agree with it.

When these rules are imposed by law, they just become an extra source of income for some of our corrupt traffic police officers

True. But not to the extent of not making/imposing socially relevant rules at all.

Officials should focus more on punishing people who drive recklessly/rashly, break traffic signals, drive while talking on a cellphone, driving under the influence, etc.

Agreed, but riding a two wheeler sans a helmet is also a reckless/rash act.

If some guy is riding without a helmet

And you, after braking hard, just about touch his bike. He falls down, injures his head and kicks the bucket. Imagine convincing a cop that you are not responsible for his death.

or driving without seatbelts and gets into an accident then he is risking his own life

Again, you bump his car, he in turn bumps his head onto the dash or the windshield and succumbs. Who will the law blame?

Simply said, helmets and seatbelts should be seen upon similar as crossing a rail track without making sure there is no train coming. If you don't, then you are only responsible if something goes wrong!

Simply said, the laws/rules are the barriers/gates erected at the railway crossings. Shall we do away with them too?

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Sherlocked

I am of this belief that the rule of wearing helmets and seatbelts should only be recommendatory and not mandatory.

Somethings must be mandatory if the danger is real, but not obvious to most people. Helmets and seatbelts save lives, it is a proven fact. Mandatory rule helps start a safe habit.

My company has helmet rule, if any employee comes to work on 2-wheeler without helmet, they are not allowed inside. In fact, most of the our employees started wearing helmet only after joining the company. Now most of them won't ride without helmet anymore because they feel naked/unsafe without it. Some even thanked our rule later, because it forced them into that safe habit.

[pavi]

Originally Posted by Sherlocked

I am of this belief that the rule of wearing helmets and seatbelts should only be recommendatory and not mandatory.

Consider your best friend is 'heart broken', he told you that he was planning to commit suicide and asked you for the best ways to commit suicide. What will you do?. Your options are,
1. You dedicate your time and effort to research on the different ways to commit a suicide and let him know the same.
2. You will kill him.
3. Ask him to post in Facebook, twitter etc.
4. You will try all the ways possible (counselling, educating, punishing, quarreling etc. etc.) to stop him from committing a suicide

If your answer is 4th option, I believe you know the value of life and you understand he (every human being) is unique and cannot be replaced. And now you say, if making something mandatory will actually help saving lives, shouldn't it be implemented.

Nothing is more important than 'life', be it of a 90 year old or of a fetus.

[sidpunjabi]

Ah! Someone call Sachin Tendulkar. Maybe the words of God, if not His fear, will knock some sense (before gravel does) into their heads!!

[paragsachania]

Helmets mandatory whilst riding inside the office campus is actually killing 2 birds with one shot - You somehow ensure employees wear it all the time, and also mitigate insurance payout in case of fatal incidents that happen within the campus and during office hours. On yes, the 3rd one: You can appear on the newspaper one of the days to talk about how serious you are about traffic rules.

When working in Pune I have myself seen a lot of my colleagues wear the helmet that was otherwise hanging on their shoulder no sooner to entering the gate and on the other hand in Bangalore even today I see many colleagues remove helmet and hang around their shoulder and start entering the parking lot soon after entering the office gate.

[Sherlocked]

Originally Posted by dailydriver

..

Originally Posted by Samurai

..

Originally Posted by pavi

..

Gents, I agree with your opinions. What I primarily meant that the awareness must evoke from within.

If we want serious implementation of this rule, then IMO the penalties must be severe and the loopholes of people getting by it must be worked upon.

Originally Posted by sidpunjabi

Ah! Someone call Sachin Tendulkar. Maybe the words of God, if not His fear, will knock some sense (before gravel does) into their heads!!

I doubt he'll do it again. The last time he did, it created quite a lot of parodies, such as this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWNCK2KG48A

[pjbiju]

Originally Posted by saket77

Quoting the leader in your quote.

20-25 KMPH not enough to kill?
...

Just goes to show how brainless these politicians and activists are. 20-25 kmph is the average speed and you can see people on two-wheelers riding at speeds varying anything between 40 to 80 and sometimes even at 100 kmph on Pune roads. Yes the speeds would be lower in the old city areas. But the speeds are much higher on most of the other roads. Add to that a good percentage of the roads are now concrete roads which means the road surface is going to take very little of the impact and almost the entire impact will be passed to the head without a helmet.

I have witnessed a person riding a two-wheeler falling and his head hitting the concrete road when he must have been riding at relatively lower speeds of 25-30 kmph (just a few meters down a traffic signal). I highly doubt if that person survived - he had no external injury, but blood had started coming out of his mouth, nose etc. and was already in convulsions. The person who caused the accident took him to the hospital. People protesting against these things need to be shown some graphic video/photo contents of such accidents to bring them around - may be that is hoping for too much.

I am happy that I have at least convinced my family and my wife's family to ride safe, rule or no rule and always wear helmets. I have not succeeded in convincing my brothers and their families back in Kerala to follow suite - their excuse is that they are not in riding on crowded roads of the town and is only riding for a couple of km with hardly any vehicle on the road. The fact that even on such empty roads we have had a few deaths because of head injuries and that my sister-in-law herself had a fall because of a dog chase has not made them converts.

[silverado]

Originally Posted by damanbir

How is it that Pune is a city where tinted glasses are very common, but in Places like Mumbai has absolutely zero tolerance.

If you drive a SWIFT /Fortuner you can very well have tinted glasses and break any rules.People in Pune take pride in not wearing helmets.

Originally Posted by suku_patel_22

What is wrong with people!! Don't people care for their safety anymore?

There is nothing wrong buddy, but thats the Pune way of life. I am sure you have not spent time in Pune.

Originally Posted by amrutmhatre90

This incident is of Pune. Read someplace, Pune will be making helmets compulsory, and citizens have agreed for this.

This is never going to happen, may happen in Pune Central, but forget this being implemented in Pimpri Chinchwad or any outskirts.
Apparently, i think its mandatory for ladies to only wear a scarf in Pune while riding a two wheeler and this is followed religiously by all.

[Chetan_Rao]

Ask one of these chaps to walk straight into a wall as fast as their legs can carry them, then ask for their opinion on 'low speeds' again, assuming the knock doesn't kill whatever little brains they had to begin with.

[pavi]

Originally Posted by Sherlocked

Gents, I agree with your opinions. What I primarily meant that the awareness must evoke from within.

We should consider the fact that we are talking about India whose government is building toilets even in this era of digital revolution, where literacy rate is low, girl fetuses are getting aborted etc. Hence awareness evocation from within is out of question here. As you mentioned the implementation should be fool proof, the seat belt implementation is very much fruitful in Kerala as I have seen minuscule percentage of drivers who are not using seat belt now.

[StepUP!]

Well, have you learned about reasons put forward for this protest? Some legendary reasons are:

1. It's a move to benefit helmet manufacturers
2. I don't get 360 view when I wear helmet resulting in an accident
3. I suffer from spondylosis if I wear helmet
4. I suffer from hair loss, baldness due to helmet
5. Police should be after criminals, mafias instead of vexing citizens for money
6. First fix the infrastructure then ask me to wear helmet
7. People travelling by four wheeler are deciding for and forcing rules on, two wheelers which is sad
8. Commissioner should travel on two wheeler first and then preach

I think it only happens in Pune, sarcasm and blunt capital.
Same city where people died of hoarding crashing onto them in the middle of the road but, still they don't want to learn.

We do need population control and these protesters are helping in the noble cause! I do appreciate them. We need to get rid of such morons but not at the cost of a law abiding, innocent citizens.

As suggested by someone above, it's high time we deny insurance to offenders and give no compensation from tax payer's money in case of a death.

Indeed we should have a surgical strike on DLs. Existing DLs cease to exist beyond 2020 and issue new DLs from a centralized system after strict tests.

It will fix many issues. There is no central system to issue DLs, one person can hold many DLs from different states, no progressive fines for repetitive offenders, no centralized database to take decisions for the central ministry etc.

[hrman]

What are these guys upto? Here in Bangalore, I heard some companies and IT parks do not allow riders to enter the campus without helmets or seatbelts on. And we have Punekars wanting to do away with this rule!!
Darwin's award candidates for sure.
Most of two wheeler accident fatalitites are caused due to injuries to the head and related areas. It is for ones own safety. I am glad it is mandatory for rider and pillion in Bangalore and implemented accordingly as well.

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by hrman

Here in Bangalore, I heard some companies and IT parks do not allow riders to enter the campus without helmets or seatbelts on.

Na! The case with most of the Tech and Manufacturing companies is the same in Pune too - You are not allowed to enter inside the campus without Helmets or Seat belts. This has been there since a decade or beyond that. I myself have seen it while I worked here in 2008/10.

So, today in Pune, the minuscule percentage of everyday riders (not referring to Sunday morning riders) who wear helmets belong to one of these organizations. This sample will also include those who are really serious about wearing a helmet irrespective of whether its a company rule or not.

Then there are other riders who wear it only because they know it is a life saver.

Those protesting it are the ones who would also be part of breaking all rules while on road on a 2 wheeler.

[haldar_siliguri]

Originally Posted by silverado

This is never going to happen, may happen in Pune Central, but forget this being implemented in Pimpri Chinchwad or any outskirts.

Totally Agree. Basically any area outside core PMC limits is never going to see these implement, if at all. PCMC to be specific has about 90% less law enforcement and that always shows in the freedom with which the people flout not only rules, but even basic human decorum.




The best quote from the article is:

“In the city limits people are facing issues like spondylitis due to weight of helmets. The ability to hear also goes down.”

These are the people who can even justify spitting in public places with "too much throat secretions" and taking a piss in the alleyways with "extreme internal body pressure".