In the ongoing State-wide special drive against riding motorised two-wheelers without wearing helmets on national and State highways, a total of 2,073 e-challans were issued in the last 24 hours. Helmetless driving is a major cause of road accidents and grievous injury across Odisha.
A total of 77 vehicles have been seized for driving without driving licence. The enforcement team of State Transport Authority have collected Rs 4,30,400 towards fine and as many as 400 licences have been suspended for riding the two wheelers without helmet.
Joint Commissioner Transport, Road Safety Sanjay Biswal said, “The main aim of the drive is to create a sense of responsibility among the road users for prevention of road accidents and fatalities. It has been observed that out of the accidents taking place on NH/SH many are related to two-wheeler riders. Due to continuous enforcement activities people are using helmets in the urban areas but are unfortunately avoiding wearing helmets on highways where protection is much more needed.”
Notably, as many as 1,308 persons, including riders (868) and pillion riders (440) of motorised two-wheelers, were killed in road accidents in the year 2021. Most of them were not wearing helmet. A total of 1,280 persons were grievously injured and 747 had minor injuries in accidents involving two wheelers.
The special drive against helmetless riders which began on August 16 will continue till August 30.