Senior traffic police officers are visiting fuel stations across the city to enforce an eight-year-old directive — “no helmet, no petrol” — to force two-wheeler riders to wear helmets as part of the mandatory safety measure.
The move follows a nudge from Lalbazar to traffic guards across the city asking officers to immediately address the issue of a section of two-wheelers continuing to move around without helmets.
At a recent traffic review meeting at the police headquarters, officers were told to step up prosecution against helmet-less bikers and visit petrol pumps to talk to the owners about enforcing the “no helmet, no petrol” rule.
“The meeting discussed measures to reduce road accidents, particularly those involving speeding two-wheelers. A significant number of bikers are still shunning helmets. It was decided that besides prosecuting such two-wheeler riders, the police will reach out to the fuel station owners to remind them about the ‘no helmet no petrol’ rule,” said a police officer.
On Friday, officers from several traffic guards started visiting fuel pumps in their areas to remind the owners and the staff about the ban on selling petrol to two-wheeler riders without helmets.
In some instances, officers produced a copy of the notification that was issued by Rajeev Kumar, then commissioner of Kolkata Police, in December 2016 and asked pump owners to alert the police if they faced any trouble while refusing fuel to motorcyclists without helmets.
Four years after Kumar’s order, then Kolkata Police commissioner Anuj Sharma re-issued the notice.
“We told some of the pump owners that unless their employees strictly enforce the state government’s directive, it will be difficult to curb helmet-less riding of two-wheelers,” said a senior officer of the Kasba traffic guard.
Accidents involving two-wheelers have remained one of the greatest causes of concern for the police in the city. Senior officers said that in December, five persons were killed in four road accidents on one night in the city. All the victims were riding two-wheelers.
In March, a 24-year-old helmet-less biker died after his two-wheeler rammed into a lamp post on Canal South Road near Chingrighata. Days after this, a 19-year-old engineering student who was riding his motorcycle to a biryani outlet died after being hit by a truck in Beleghata.
The police said the teenager, a second-year student at a polytechnic in Moulali, was not wearing a helmet.
“Even if some riders choose to wear helmets on main roads, they go without the headgear while driving through lanes and bylanes. Accidents can happen anywhere,” the police officer said.
“The compliance to the helmet rule has gone up after the fine for the offence was raised from Rs 100 to Rs 1,000. But there is still a large number of two-wheeler riders who feel they can get away without wearing a helmet.”