Daily Times

LAHORE: After a strict court order, the City Traffic Police (CTP) has decided to take stern action against motorcyclists not wearing a helmet after Muharram 10 across the city.

The violators would also face Rs 1,000 fine on the issue.

Chief Traffic Officer (CTO) Liaquat Ali Malik directed all officers to educate the road users especially motorcyclists about using the helmet and its benefits. He added that initially the awareness campaign started at all educational institutions where road safety officers would inform about the benefits of helmet usage as well as dangerous aspect of not using the helmet.

He added that before this strict implementation of helmet usage, announcements regarding this new law should be made in mosques through loudspeakers all across the city and print and electronic media should follow suit.

He said that both the motorcycle driver and the passenger should wear helmets otherwise strict action would be taken against both the persons after September 23, 2018.

The CTO and CTP had started awareness campaigns across the city for the past few month in which thousands of helmets were distributed free among the citizens to aware them as well as to convince them to use these for the safety of theirs and others lives. He said the chances of fatal injuries occurring during accidents increased in the absence of a helmet.

Sources said that a number of accidents involving motorcyclists happened in the city and the majority of deaths occurred due to injuries on the head. They said CTP had started different campaigns for the safety of the people and it would conduct lectures to create public awareness about wearing a helmet.

Sources said no motorcycle company provided helmets to the buyers at the time of purchase and now thousands of motorcyclists would have to buy helmets at inflated prices. They said that government and other concerned departments must enforce a law in which the motorcycle companies would have to give out helmets along with the purchase of a motorbike.

Meanwhile, citizens expect the prices of helmets to increase due to this new law.

They said that concerned departments failed to control the price hike in the markets which created more burden on the people who also suffered seriously due to price hike issues like electricity, gas, other utility bills and daily basis needs of life.

They said a regular helmet was being sold for Rs 1,000 to Rs 3,000 but after this new law, the price would double as had happened in the past. He said due to the price hike, incidents of helmet theft were also being reported.

Published in Daily Times, September 12^th 2018.