12,500 licences suspended in special drive against helmetless riding

Odisha State Transport Authority has suspended more than 12,000 driving licences and collected over Rs 60 lakh as fine during a two-week special drive against helmetless riders on state highways

The Odisha State Transport Authority (STA) has suspended more than 12,000 driving licences and collected over Rs 60 lakh as fine during a two-week special drive against helmetless riders on the highways of the state, STA official said on Friday.

A total of 888 vehicles have been seized for driving without licence and 24,474 e-challans were issued in the drive against riding two-wheelers without wearing helmets on national and state highways from August 16-30, the STA said on Friday.

Helmetless driving is a major cause of road accidents and grievous injury across Odisha, the official said.

Last year 1,308 riders and pillion riders were killed in road accidents and most of them were not wearing helmets. A total of 1,280 people were seriously injured and 747 had minor injuries in accidents involving two-wheelers during the period, according to a STA release.

"The enforcement team of the STA collected Rs 63.98 lac as fine and 12,545 licences have been suspended for riding the two-wheelers without helmet," it said.

Additional transport commissioner Lalmohan Sethi said the main aim of the drive was to create a sense of responsibility among the people for prevention of road accidents and fatalities.

"Due to the continuous enforcement activities, people are using helmets in the urban areas. But unfortunately they are avoiding wearing helmets on highways, where more protection is needed," Sethi said.

Enforcement drives will be conducted at regular intervals throughout the month in view of the coming festival season, the official said.

There will be zero tolerance for violation of traffic rules, drunken driving and others, he added.