Road safety: ‘Motorcyclists sans helmets won’t be refuelled’

Traffic officials set up stalls selling helmets at cheaper prices

RAWALPINDI: In a drastic step to ensure motorbike riders use helmets, the Rawalpindi Deputy Commissioner Omar Jahangir on Sunday gave an ultimatum that any motorbike rider without a helmet will not be provided with petrol at any fuel station from December.

“Any motorcyclist not wearing a helmet will not be refuelled at any fuel station in Rawalpindi after December 1, 2018. Directions have been issued to all fuel stations,” the deputy commissioner wrote on microblogging social network Twitter.

Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry hailed the initiative.

“Brilliant idea, in Lahore implementation of the helmet law, led to a 63 per cent reduction in head injuries, this idea is even better,” Chaudhry wrote back on Twitter.

The City Traffic Police (CTP) on the directive of Lahore High Court has already launched a campaign to make helmets compulsory for motorbike riders.

The Rawalpindi district administration, on the recommendation of the Rawalpindi CTO has already issued a notification to ban the entry of helmet-less motorcyclists on Mall Road and Peshawar Road from December.

Under its drive against helmet-less riders, the CTP has issued nearly 21,000 tickets to bikers for not using helmets and imposed over Rs6 million in fines for violating the rules in just the past 17 days.

Bad helmets getting expensive

Amid the ongoing crackdown, motorbike riders are decrying the heavy fines being imposed by the police.

They have also complained against the skyrocketing prices as well as the poor quality of helmets available in the city, which they claim, the authorities have failed to keep a check on.

People have complained that in light of the crackdown, helmet traders have taken to profiteering, either selling them at exorbitant rates while those being sold at cheaper are substandard.

A survey of different helmet stores showed that traders have indeed doubled the prices of helmets from the rates which were being charged prior to the campaign.

In order to facilitate bikers in this regard, the district management and traffic officials have decided to set up stalls where motorbike riders can buy helmets at cheaper prices than the open market.

A picture of a stall outside the City Traffic Officer (CTO) office read, “Helmets available on controlled rates for the facilitation of Motorcyclists. Please wear a helmet for yourself and your loved ones.”

These stalls are selling the low-quality helmets at Rs500 against Rs700 in open market shops, while the better quality helmets are being sold at Rs800 against Rs1,500 in the open market.

A helmet buyer, Mushtaq said that he was not aware of the quality standards of helmets, but said that he could tell that prices had been jacked as compared to last month.

However, owing to the recent regulations, he said that he had no other option but to purchase a helmet to avoid the heavy tickets.

He urged the authorities to take action against riders being fleeced by helmet vendors and to ensure the provision of quality helmets to protect motorbike riders from injury. Faisal, a motorbike spare parts dealer, said that traders had to increase prices of helmets as the wholesale prices had been increased.

He said only 15 to 20 per cent of bikers used helmets in the city thus there had never been such a demand for helmets earlier. He lamented that the government had not given ample time to importers and commented that traders should at least be provided three months so they can import more helmets.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2018.