Cuttack: In the ongoing state-wide special drive against riding motorized two-wheelers without wearing helmets on national and state highways, a total of 2073 e-challans were issued in the last 24 hours, the State Transport Authority (STA) said.
Helmet-less driving is a major cause of accidents and grievous injury across Odisha.
A total of 77 vehicles have been seized for driving without driving license.
The enforcement team of STA have collected Rs 4.30 lakh towards fine and as many as 400 licenses have been suspended for riding the two wheelers without helmet.
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.
As per accident data, as many as 1308 persons, including riders (868) and pillion riders (440) of motorised two-wheelers, were killed in road accidents in the year 2021.Most of them did not have helmet. While 1280 persons were grievously injured and 747 had minor injuries in motorcycle accidents.
According to the Motor Vehicles Amendment Act 2019, riding without helmet attracts a penalty of Rs 1,000. If a person riding pillion is not wearing helmet, then the driving licence of the rider will be suspended for three months and a fine of Rs 1,000 will be imposed against him/her.
The ongoing special drive against helmetless riders which began on August 16 will continue till August 30.