Helmets are meant to protect motorcyclists from fatal injuries in the case of accidents, but they are being treated as useless objects in Rawalpindi where motorcyclists rarely bother on putting them on while riding their bikes.
Helmets on the heads of motorcyclists are a rare sight in Rawalpindi where the safety device is either not there entirely, or seen lying on fuel tanks which is not only a sheer violation of the traffic rules but which also puts the lives of the riders at risk.
Due to the congested roads and encroachments in the city, its residents prefer travelling via motorcycles but they rarely bother using helmets.
“In such disorderly traffic it is really hard to ride wearing a helmet as one has to keep his eye in almost all directions,” a resident, Shehzad Awan said.
Another motorcyclist Mujeeb-ur-Rehman said he felt comfortable riding his motorbike without the helmet as its use caused suffocation.
“This impression is wrong that motorcycle riders are given a clean chit in the city, rather Challans are being issued on a regular basis for not using helmets,” a traffic warden said.
He said that the traffic police was striving to promote the culture of using helmets which had totally been ignored in the past.
A survey revealed that the riders immediately wore helmets after crossing the Faizabad Interchange which showed that the traffic rules were more strictly followed in the capital city.
“In Islamabad, you cannot travel without a helmet as the traffic rules here are comparatively strictly enforced and the vehicular movement is also quite fast, so riding a motorcycle without a helmet is highly risky,” a daily traveler from Rawalpindi to Islamabad, Shoaib Ahsan said.
Though a lot of improvement in vehicular traffic was witnessed in Rawalpindi after the introduction of traffic wardens, a lot still needs to be done in this respect.
