‘No Helmet No Petrol’ rule implemented in Kolkata

“No petrol pump within the jurisdiction of Kolkata Police shall henceforth sell petrol to any such two-wheeler rider who comes to the petrol pump riding a two-wheeler without helmet as well carries a pillion rider without helmet,” said a notification by the city police published on Saturday.

Within 24 hours of the Chief Minister’s orders, the city police booked more than 1,500 bikers for either driving at breakneck speed or not wearing helmets.The state government has also banned driving of motor cycles on flyovers between 10 pm and 6 am, where the new craze is high speed bike racing at night. Bikes above 750cc are used in racing and accidents have become frequent.

Motorcyclists do not wear helmets and many of them die in accidents while taking sharp turns on the flyovers. On Saturday afternoon, a youth named Sunny was seriously injured after he hit a wall of the Maa flyover. He has been hospitalised in a serious condition.

A senior officer of city police’s traffic department said most of the bikers, who ride powerful bikes, do not have any knowledge about how to handle the machine. These bikes gather speed in seconds and suddenly when anything comes in their way they panic and try to apply the brakes which cause injury, either to the bikes or to themselves. 

He suggested that training schools for bikers using heavy motor cycles should be set up where they should be given proper training. It may be recalled that on World Motor Cycle Day a function was held at New Town where expert bikers from Delhi taught the bikers some tit bits of long distance biking.