1,297 persons killed in accidents, cops blame it on people’s attitude

Speaking at an event after releasing three awareness short films on road safety, bank fraud and phishing, the Chennai city police Commissioner AK Viswanathan said that out of 1,297 fatalities, as many as 792 persons were two-wheeler riders (including those riding pillion). “Among them, 23 died despite wearing helmets while the rest did not wear a helmet,” he said.

Speaking to DT Next, the Additional Commissioner (traffic) A Arun said that city traffic police identified the accident prone zones last year and deployed additional strength to reduce the accidents in those areas. He added that the attitude of people towards the traffic rules should change and enforcement alone can’t curb the number of accidents.

“We have booked 24.50 lakh traffic violation cases including one lakh cases for [not wearing helmet]. Traffic police collected Rs 27 crore last year as fine which means that it was not enforcement that was the problem but people’s attitude was. People don’t mind paying the fine and continue to disobey the traffic rules,” Arun said.

“People in other States have taken road safety in a serious manner. This is why we continue activities to create more awareness on road safety here,” he added. The officer also said that among the 792 motorists who died in 2018, 143 were pillion riders.

Najmul Hoda, Joint Commissioner (Traffic-North), said that while motorists have started wearing the helmet, they don’t make the pillion riders to follow suit. “What is required is better roads and better civic sense,” he added.