Hyderabad: Shop owners take oath not to sell fake helmets

Helmet shop owners on Monday broke fake helmets and took an oath to curb the sale of low-quality helmets, police said.

VC Sajjanar, Commissioner of Police (CP), Cyberabad said, "In view of the increasing sale, distribution and usage of low-quality and fake helmets in the city, Cyberabad Traffic Police constituted a special team under the lead of Traffic Inspector, M Srinivasulu of Road Traffic Accident Cases Monitoring Cell of Cyberabad to identify and raid shops and godowns selling and storing low quality/fake helmets in Cyberabad limits."

"The team identified such shops and registered 10 FIRs (criminal cases) against the concerned persons. This is the first of its kind act in the country where all helmet shop owners came forward and broke fake helmets and took an oath to curb the selling of low-quality helmets," Sajjanar said.

The Commissioner said, "Meanwhile, many sellers approached Traffic Police to join hands to curb the sale of such low quality and fake helmets in the city by discouraging their purchase, sale, and distribution. Such helmets are against the law and provide no protection to the riders."

"In 2019 (upto October) out of 720 deaths due to fatal accidents in Cyberabad, 388 deaths involved two-wheeler riders and pillion riders. This constitutes almost 54 per cent of the total deaths due to accidents here. Also, 94 per cent of the persons, who died while riding two-wheelers were either not wearing helmets or were wearing low-quality helmets. On detailed analysis, it was found that two-wheeler riders/pillion riders not wearing helmets or wearing low-quality helmets constitute the majority of the deaths in road accidents," the Commissioner added.