Driving sans helmets, seatbelts among highest recorded traffic violations

PANAJI: Riding two-wheelers without wearing helmets and driving four-wheelers without using seatbelts qualified among the highest traffic violations in 2018, with the number of cases going upto several thousands, according to figures shared by the state transport department.
Instances of driving without seatbelts rose from over 10,000 in the first trimester of 2018 to nearly 20,000 in each of the remaining trimesters of the year.

Collectively, over 40,000 cases of helmet violations were detected in the first quarter of 2018 which increased to over 70,000 in the second and third quarters.
The numbers, however, drastically dropped to a little over 19,000 in the last quarter thus indicating a possibility of improved traffic discipline among two-wheeler riders in the state.
“It is a known fact that many people in Goa neither use a helmet nor believe in implementing this practice. Traffic sentinels have played a major role in reporting this violation, which has gone on to reduce the numbers. Yet, there are a few two-wheeler riders without helmet that still speed past the traffic police instead of stopping. We are trying to convince as many people as possible through workshops and awareness programmes to make use of these safety devices,” said road safety activist Dilip Naik.
According to data collated by the research wing of the Union ministry of road transport and highways transport (MoRTH), 136 individuals were killed in Goa in 2017 due to ‘non-use of safety device’.
Figures further revealed that not wearing helmets caused 131 deaths in the state in 2017, while not wearing seatbelts caused five fatalities that same year.