Are you a helmetless daredevil? Get ready to pay Rs 500 at every junction

Each time a helmetless rider passes a junction fitted with ANPR cameras, he or she will be fined Rs 500. Paying for one violation does not mean the rider can continue to commit the same violation for the rest of the day— Special Commissioner of Police, Traffic M.A. Saleem

Hameed Ashraf | NT

Bengaluru: Despite various awareness campaigns and strict monitoring by the traffic police, several bikers can still be seen riding around the city without wearing helmets.

Bengaluru Special Commissioner, Traffic, M . A . Saleem, has now said that with the new automated number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras installed, the helmetless daredevil riders will have to shell out fines at each passing junction in the city from now on.

Prior to this, a biker who was fined or penalised manually by a traffic cop would be spared for the day and would not be penalised again for the same offense in the city.

The receipt of the payment he or she would have made to the cop served as a day pass. However, now, the rules have changed. Speaking to News Trail, M.A. Saleem said that each violation will now be considered as a different event and rather a fresh violation.

"Each time a helmetless rider passes a junction fitted with ANPR cameras, he or she will be fined Rs 500. Paying for one violation does not mean the rider can continue to commit the same violation for the rest of the day," he said. 'Camera sees halfhelmet as no helmet' About half-helmets, the special commissioner had already clarified that "halfhelmets are no helmets."

The ANPR cameras have been programmed to recognise a half-helmet as no helmet, M.A. Saleem added. According to Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP), over 1 crore traffic offence cases were booked across the city in 2022.

With the increase in vehicles, the overall cases booked under various subgroups of offences have increased by 32 percent over the last four years. But some common violations have either drastically come down or shot up, indicating a rise in awareness and enforcement, respectively.

"Helmetless riding is one of the most easily detectable offences and hence those numbers will always be high. We don't want to penalise the motorists. People must realise that a helmet can save their lives. We are conducting various campaigns to spread the message of road safety. No other city in the country is enforcing traffic rules at the rate of BTP. However, from the last few months, I have noticed a drop in the traffic violation cases," the traffic expert added.

In 2019, around 79 lakh traffic offences had been booked, the number rose to 84 lakh in 2020, and 93 lakh in 2021, despite lockdowns. In 2022, over 1 crore cases were booked, the BTP report showed.