In our country alone, every three minutes one person dies in a road accident. Awareness among road users can go a long way in saving lives that are lost on our roads. Following the basic rules of driving and riding, like wearing seat belt and a helmet can help in preventing road accidents and also in bringing down the number of deaths caused on our roads.
With the aim of reducing number of the road accidents, the city police traffic department is making conscious efforts in spreading awareness among the public on road safety. Although wearing helmet is made compulsory, many people don't follow the order. Whenever they are caught during an inspection they are fined a mere fine of Rs.100.
The Coimbatore police in an effort to reduce the lives lost in road accidents have come up with a novel initiative of teaching the public the importance of wearing helmets. When speaking to the press about the initiative joint Commissioner of Coimbatore said “When the reasons for the deaths due to road accidents were analysed, not wearing helmet was the cause of death in most cases.
Hence as a part of our new initiative we have planned to teach the young children who are the future road users about the importance of wearing helmets. Under this initiative we will visit one school every Tuesday and educate the children on road traffic rules. So far the programme has been implemented in six schools and we will reach out to many more schools in the future.” this police officer said.
The police officer added “We have instructed the students to instruct their parents to wear helmets while ridding their two wheelers. In the schools where this awareness drive was organized about 400 post cards were distributed to the students. As a part of a feedback session, students were asked to write back to the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Traffic Wing. The city police shares that nearly 150 post cards with positive feedback stating that their parents at home are wearing helmets while riding their two-wheelers were received. As a token of appreciation, a gift was handed over to students who took up the exercise of offering feedback seriously.
The city police is confident that very soon they will achieve their goal of ensuring that our roads are safe for drivers and riders.