Traffic police issues circular, then withdraws, making helmet a must for pillion riders

It issued a circular in the afternoon to make helmet compulsory even for a pillion rider from mid-July.

By evening, the circular was withdrawn. Because the law does not make it compulsory.

Now, it would be compulsory only for the two wheeler rider. From 15^th July.

Devesh Mahla has recently taken over as the SP of traffic police.

He issued the circular and then told Goa 365 that helmets would be made compulsory for both the rider and the pillion rider from 15^th July onwards even on the internal roads of Goa, just not the highways.

Because the number of deaths also of pillion riders is quite high.

However, the SP realised by evening that the Goa Motor Vehicles Act does not have a provision to make helmet compulsory for the pillion rider.

Therefore he has not advised the pillion riders to wear helmets. 

SP Mahla is worried because every year 40 to 50 people who die in road accidents are pillion riders.

This is the statistics he has provided about accidental deaths of two wheeler riders. 

TWO WHEELER DEATHS

YEAR                                     RIDERS                  PILLION

2016                                       186                         42

MAY 2017                            90                           13