Use your head, wear a helmet

Wear a helmet while riding a two­ wheeler, even if you are riding pillion. It’s a simple 

enough rule, there’s no argument against it. Every day in the tricity, hundreds of people 

flout the rule, often with disastrous consequences.

Dropping your child off at school? Wear a helmet and make sure your child has one too.

Making a quick trip to a grocery story on your scooter, or going to the salon on your 

kinetic? Grab a helmet. Riding pillion? Use a helmet.

Wearing a helmet while riding a two wheeler should perhaps come as naturally as 

wearing clothes before stepping out. Several studies have established that wearing 

a helmet reduces the severity of injuries by at least 70 percent and brings down fatality 

by almost 40 percent.

In the second part of the series on Save the Helmet Series, HT talks to various experts 

and doctors about the dangers of not wearing a helmet and why you must not leave home 

without it.

FULL COVERAGE HELMETS WITH PROPER CHINSTRAP SHOULD BE USED

During road accidents, people wearing a helmet without chinstrap suffered more than 

twice the severe injuries as compared to individuals wearing a strapped helmet. This was 

among the findings of a study conducted by the experts from the Post Graduate Institute 

of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) last year, which advises people to wear 

full coverage helmets with a proper chinstrap are effective in preventing head injury.

The study was conducted on 1,545 road accident patients (1,314 males and 231 females) 

for nine months. All these patients were brought to the PGIMER emergency with head 

injuries.

The purpose was to evaluate the profile of head injury cases among drivers or riders and 

whether they were wearing helmet or seat belt.

Of the total, 1,346 were on two wheeler vehicles and 199 in four wheeler vehicles.

The study found that at the time of the accident, only 13.4 percent two-wheeler riders 

were wearing a helmet. Only 5.6 percent were females against 14.7 percent males who 

wore helmets.

The study found that among patients wearing helmet, only 4.8 percent sustained severe 

head injuries as compared to 23.7 percent patients who were without helmet.

Also, a large number (71.4 percent) of men riding two-wheelers were most commonly 

injured.

The study recommended that there should be a ready supply of affordable helmets 

of appropriate quality and strict legislation to ensure safety constraints for road 

safety.

The study points towards the need to have a law which makes wearing helmet 

compulsory for two-wheeler riders, irrespective of sex and religion.

The study, “Profile of patients with head injury among vehicular accidents: An 

experience from a tertiary care centre of India”, was published in the journal Neurology 

India.

The helmet acts like a barrier for the head and shields the brain from any impact. Skull 

fractures and brain injuries are the most common causes of death in road accidents 

involving riders without helmets. Those who survive a brain injury run the risk of 

losing a number of body functions.

WOMEN NEED TO BE MADE AWARE, SAY EXPERTS

With women being the largest segment of pillion riders, who seldom wear helmets, 

there is an increasing need for more awareness drives and shifting the focus on this 

group, say road safety experts.

Navdeep Asija, traffic adviser, Punjab, and founder of Eoabs, told HT, “Helmets and 

seat belts are the two most important interventions that have the capacity to reduce 

fatalities by 40 percent to 45 percent.” In his advisory to the Punjab government for use 

of helmets to ensure safety, he had also suggested that social media help be taken to 

identify violators through public participation in various cities like Ludhiana, Amritsar 

and Jalandhar. Now this initiative is bearing success. “People are asked to post 

photographs of traffic violations along with number plates of vehicles to WhatsApp 

number or Facebook page of the local traffic police, who then initiate action,” he stated.

Experts agree that the only other way to reduce deaths among two-wheeler drivers is 

a public campaign to promote the importance of wearing helmets and introducing ways 

to ensure that riders buy helmets that are certified.