People on two-wheelers without helmets, many of whom were stopped by police near Salt Lake’s gate number II, where a child suffered fatal injuries in an accident on Tuesday, gave several excuses for not wearing helmets or letting pillion riders travel minus any protection.

On Thursday, Metro spotted two-wheeler riders riding without helmets at regular intervals.

Many among them had schoolchildren as pillion riders. There are two schools on First Avenue — near Salt Lake gate number II — which leads to the Hudco intersection.

A sizable section of the riders without helmets rode past cops without being stopped. Many violated a host of traffic rules, including driving down the wrong flank of the road, with impunity.

Pedestrians crossed both flanks of the road — one for Ultadanga-bound traffic and the other for vehicles headed for Salt Lake — when the traffic signal for vehicles was green.

Many tried to board moving buses in the middle of the road with cars and motorcycles speeding past.

Shyamal Jana, 36, who lives near Ultadanga’s number15 bus stand, did not have a helmet and was speaking on his phone while riding a scooter.

“This is an electric scooter. We don’t need a helmet to ride one of these,” this newspaper heard Jana telling the police.

The officer deployed at the crossing pointed out to Jana that he was also speaking on his cellphone while riding and prosecuted him.

Barely 15 minutes later, a couple who had their six-year-old son sitting on their motorcycle’s fuel tank were spotted at the crossing.

“Both of us are wearing helmets. My son’s head is too small and no helmet fits him,” said Priyesh Jain, who was headed to Bagbazar from their house in Salt Lake.

Many schoolchildren were spotted sitting on two-wheelers minus any headgear or carrying helmets in their hands.

On Tuesday, 11-year-old Ayush Paik and his two-year-old cousin Afroza Khatoon were riding a scooter, being driven by Ayush’s mother Nur Jahan, without helmets.

Ayush was killed after a bus that was trying to overtake another hit the scooter’s handlebar when his mother swerved right to avoid hitting a protrusion around a service hatch on the road.

A senior traffic police officer said many guardians wear helmets when they come to pick up their wards from school but they don’t make the children wear the protective headgear.

“When we question them for the violation they say they are coming directly from work to pick up the children and do not have a spare helmet. Some say they live close by and don’t need one,” said the officer.

An officer in the Bidhannagar commissionerate said they would resume their use-helmet campaigns in schools.

The Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation has still not levelled the height gap between the road and the pavement near the accident spot.

The gap makes it difficult for two-wheeler riders on the edge of the road to reach the ground with their feet after coming to a stop. The broken patches and potholes, too, have not been repaired.