KARACHI, Sept 6: The high-profile, and at times harsh, campaign to make motorcyclists wear helmets has, so far, failed to make any visible impact as the Sindh home department and the traffic police started the drive without educating the people about the benefits of wearing helmets.
“Without launching any awareness campaign, we can’t enforce such laws as there are hundreds of thousands of motorcycles in the city as compared to few thousand traffic police personnel”, a police official admitted, adding it was impossible to challan each and every violator.
A number of motorcyclists said that the Karachi Traffic police were vigilant only on Sharea Faisal, where motorcyclists without helmets were being apprehended while some said they were allowed to proceed after they greased palms of traffic police personnel on duty.
Scores of pillion riders were seen driving their two-wheelers in the city on Monday without wearing helmets.
Some section officers of Karachi Traffic Police admitted that action against two-wheeler riders was getting poor response and attributed it to lack of awareness regarding road as well as their personal safety.
Some motorcyclists said unless and until traffic police change their attitude, people would continue to defy the ban as whole traffic control system in the city was in a shambles.
“Drivers of large buses, minibuses and coaches were openly violating traffic rules, rickshaws and taxis were creating noise and pollution while people were being crushed to death on city roads, but no action was being taken against them” they observed.
They also accused the traffic police of harassing motorcyclists and demanding money from those caught without helmets and said unless strict action is initiated against corrupt cops, people would continue to drive motorcycles without wearing helmets as a reaction to the attitude of the police.
Citing the example of Lahore and other cities, they said the Punjab government and the traffic police had jointly launched awareness campaigns about road-safety and when people realized that wearing helmets was necessary for their own protection, they started following the rules.
