New Delhi/Rajkot: Helmet rule violation was the maximum in Gujarat’s Rajkot where only three in every hundred two-wheeler riders were found wearing the headgear while in Mumbai and Kochi 93% were spotted wearing helmets, a recent study carried out in 32 cities across eight states found.The findings, based on field surveys by IIT-Delhi, DIMTS and TERI as a part of an audit conducted for the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety, showed that Kota in Rajasthan topped the list of cities where the mandatory seatbelt wearing norm was breached. Only 14% of car occupants complied with the norm in Kota while Mumbai and Jaipur were the most compliant cities.Mumbai also had the best score of ‘zero’ per cent violation of the ‘no mobile phone while driving’ norm. Use of mobile phones while driving was much less compared to the other two types of traffic rule violations in all cities.“We are strictly implementing the law and at the same time, we are educating people about the importance of wearing helmet. We prepared special garbas in Navratri to spread the message of traffic rules. We also have an advisory committee in which some prominent citizens are members who are advising us on how to encourage people wear helmet, as chances of head injuries reduce by 30% in case of accidents. We are also doing education seminars in colleges encouraging youngsters to wear helment,” Manoj Agrawal, police commissioner, RajkotThe states covered in the study were UP, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab. Violation of the helmet and seatbelt norms was higher on national highways, state highways and major district roads across states. Haryana was the only exception, particularly in the case of helmet violation.“The fear of not getting caught on such stretches could be the reason for people violating the law. When people cross the borders of major cities, they often untie the seatbelt and remove helmet,” said K K Kapila of the International Road Federation.According to the findings, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot in Gujarat had high rate of helmet and seatbelt violations followed by three cities of Karnataka — Mysuru, Hubli and Kalaburagi. It was no better in Maharashtra where only Mumbai bucked the trend.All four cities surveyed in Kerala — Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kochi and Kozhikode — had a good record. All cities of Rajasthan covered in the audit had greater compliance of the seatbelt and helmet laws except for Kota, which fared badly. In UP, except Agra, the other cities — Lucknow, Kanpur and Ghaziabad — had higher compliance as far as the helmet norm was concerned.

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