Bhubaneswar: Bishnupada Sethi, Principal Secretary Commerce & Transport directed the officials to go for overdrive to tackle road accidents.
Accordingly State Transport Authority is making statewide special drive against riding motorized two-wheelers without wearing helmets on national and state highways, the transport authorities have suspended 400 DLs in the past 24 hours.
Helmetless driving is a major cause of road accidents and grievous injury across Odisha. A total of 2073 e-challans were issued and 77 vehicles have been seized for driving without a driving license.
The enforcement team of State Transport Authority have collected Rs. 4, 30,400 towards fine and as many as 400 licenses have been suspended for riding the two wheelers without helmet.
Sanjay Biswal, Joint Commissioner Transport, Road Safety said, “The main aim of this drive is to create a sense of responsibility among the road users for prevention of road accidents and fatalities.”
It has been observed that out of the accidents taking place on NH/SH many are related to two-wheeler riders. Due to continuous enforcement activities people are using helmets in the urban areas but are unfortunately avoiding wearing helmets on highways where protection is much more needed, he said.
Biswal appealed to the two-wheeler riders and pillion riders to follow the traffic rules and wear helmets for their safety.
As many as 1308 persons, including riders (868) and pillion riders (440) of motorised two wheelers, were killed in road accidents in the year 2021. Most of them were not wearing helmets.
Similarly, a total of 1280 persons were grievously injured and 747 had minor injuries in accidents involving two wheelers.
The ongoing special drive against helmetless riders which began on August 16, will continue till August 30