Firoz.T.Totanawala The Bangalore Metro Reporter THE RIDING BLUES HELMETS, SEAT BELTS AND TINTED FILMS

By Firoz.T.Totanawala 

 The Bangalore Metro Reporter

 

THE RIDING BLUES 

 HELMETS, SEAT BELTS AND TINTED FILMS 

 The Supreme Court has ordered that all Sun films from the cars be removed. It had fixed 70% visibility on the front and rear glass and 50% visibility in side door glasses. The SC has allowed company manufactured tinted glasses to be fitted in the cars. The traffic police were quick to direct the car owners to remove all the films. They have also fixed the penalties which includes cancellation of the Driving License! 

 ‘Seat Belt’ mission was started by the Traffic police three months back. They made it compulsory for the Drivers and the front seat occupants with the contention that it will save lives from accidents. Mind it; this compulsion is limited to Bangalore only. Every body knows that Bangalore Traffic is hell on earth. Cars on average cannot cover more than 15 kms in an hour and eventually, due to slow moving, accidents are rare in car segments. Then, one fails to understand the need for seat belts. 

 On the contrary, seat belts will definitely save the lives in Highways accidents, where drivers go on maximum speed. But the police do not insist on seat belts on Highways. Except putting adboards along the High ways to wear seat belts, there is nobody to enforce the rule. And the traffic police in Bangalore are busy in booking the offenders. 

 The helmet rule in state is also contradictory. The helmet rule is limited to few cities like Bangalore, Mysore, Mangalore, Bellary and others which are Mahanagar Palikes. Helmets definitely may save the lives of riders in some cases by preventing head injuries. But interestingly, the helmet rule is enforced in only half a dozen big cities in the state. Does this imply that the lives of people in these cities are more precious than the people in the rest of the state? Even people bordering Bangalore does not need to wear helmets. One does not understand the rationale behind enforcing the helmet compulsory rule in few cities and exempting the rest of the state. 

 True, lives of people are precious and the helmets of standard quality help in minimising the impact of the accident. But, the hard reality is that majority of the people use substandard or cheap helmets that are available on the road sides apparently because good quality helmets are highly priced. One cannot get a standard helmet for less than Rs.1000, while the road side helmets are available for prices as low as Rs.100! 

 Talking about the tinted films, with the Supreme Court ruling that to avoid theft and terrorist activities, the cars should not have tinted films, it had to be removed to make persons in the car visible! The moment the SC delivered the judgement, the Bangalore Traffic Police swung into action. They directed the car owners to remove the Sun films by 19th of May, without realising the ground reality. There are about 10 lakh cars in Bangalore and the removal of the tinted films needs expert handling. At best, a worker can remove maximum of 100 tinted films in a day and there are not more than 100 experts in the city. The police too made arrangements for the removal of tinted films free of cost at many points, but, the waiting time there was exorbitantly long. The removal work also was done shabbily and in most of cases, the adhesives were not erased properly. The regular people involved in the trade started charging Rs.300 to 400 for a removal work which usually cost not more than Rupees fifty including the cost of the soap oil. Later, the charges went upto Rs.500-600! The traffic police finally extended the deadline to 5th June. 

 The Traffic Police are again advancing the argument that plain glasses will reduce thefts and attacks and they are enforcing it. They want to penalise the people who violate the law. True, there are any number of laws in the country touching upon police and the human rights. But that is followed more in violation. The traffic police who are expected to manage and regulate the traffic are busy putting up ‘No Parking’, ‘One Way Boards and fining vehicle owners, even for a small offence.

 In conclusion, the handling of the helmet rule, the seat belt rule and now tinted film removal by the traffic cops has become a bane to vehicle owners in Bengaluru. 

That is all!