Welcome to the latest fad in town — mini helmets ! Ladies, youngsters and old men alike have taken a fancy to wearing these 'brain buckets' or what one would call 'the miner's cap'. True, many complain that a full-face helmet turns out to be cumbersome during the summer season, especially with the mercury level climbing a notch higher day by day. And to add to this, we have laments elucidating from all quarters of society about perspiration, riding discomfort, ruined hairstyles and receding hairlines, apart from a sense of isolation and hearing loss when you wear a full-face helmet.
Well, the answer to these woes? Brain buckets ! But how safe are they? Are they safer in the event of a crash? What greater purpose do they serve, at what cost and at whose cost? It is bemusing that these riding caps are branded as 'Deletion helmets'. We just wonder if the term 'deletion' was mockingly pasted onto these caps with a view of enlightening the numbskulls among us as to how we stand a chance of being 'deleted' in the course of a road accident!
This week's Saturday Supplement surveys the helmet scenario in our city and why mobike victims often end up pathetically frozen up on a mortuary slab. Who's to blame? Why are our city fathers found napping over this mini helmet issue? What measures have our traffic wardens employed to ensure that the right helmets are stringently used on roads? And above all, how did the helmet originate? Read on…
GENESIS OF THE HELMET
It all started with the untimely demise of the great British adventurist, Sir T.E. Lawrence or 'Lawrence of Arabia' as he was popularly known. Riding his 'Brough Superior SS100' at 75kms/hr, the legend lost his balance and crashed into the Wareham woods while trying to avoid a group of boys on their bicycles. For five days, he remained in coma and on the sixth day he died due to severe head injuries and multiple neck fractures.
Dr. Hugh Cairns, one of the neurosurgeons who attended the comatose Lawrence, was so appalled by the Knight's fate that he began an independent research into inventing a head device that could save a biker's brain in the event of an accident. Fruitfully, Cairns' study led to the introduction of 'crash helmets' for both civilians and military personnel.
Today, a variety of helmets continue to inundate the market. The full-face, moto-cross, modular or the convertible and open-faced or the 'three-quarters', are some of the most popular head gears worn by motorcyclists around the world.
It's an undisputed fact that helmets greatly reduce injuries and fatalities in case of motorcycle accidents. Unfortunately in countries like USA and India, helmet legislations and by-laws have been met with stiff opposition from certain religious and cultural hege-monies on rather whimsical and obscure grounds.
MINI HELMETS IN MYSORE
In its first ever global status report on road safety, the World Health Organisation revealed in a report (2008) that India led the traffic death toll with 1,05,000 victims followed by China with 96,000 road deaths. Around 37% of India's road deaths were related to motorcycle accidents. The report also said that 89% of bike deaths happened because motor-cyclists were found riding without helmets and if they wore them, the chin-straps were not affixed. (Wea-ring a helmet without the chin-straps in place is akin to facing a Yorker from some towering West-Indian bowler without your groin pads on!)
Independent studies conducted by leading Indian neurosurgeons indicate that nearly 50% of the injured motorcyclists and 1/3rd of those killed in bike accidents invariably suffered from severe brain injuries ranging from concussions, contusions, hemorrhage to fractured skulls.
As far as our city is concerned (and it's the same with other cities too), bikes and bikers are increasing day by day. With two-wheelers being made available at down-to-earth prices, nothing seems to be beyond the reach of the common man today.
Naturally with more number of bikes on roads, accidents are bound to incr-ease. Sadly, the Karnataka Hel-met Legislation of 1993 has had very little teeth to counter this problem. Fur-ther, Section 129 (chapter 7) of the Motor Vehicles Act 1988 and the Central Motor Vehicle Rules 1989 enu-merates on the mandatory usage of helmets for two-wheelers and pillion riders.
However, due credit should be given to the State and our city traffic authorities in bringing to book erring motor-cyclists for not complying with the helmet rules.
'So far so good' as one would say, but with the invasion of the mini-helmets, all rider safety measures seem to have gone for a sure sixer!
In what could be arguably called a pyrrhic victory for the erratic public, our city folks have managed to hoodwink the authorities at a cost. As one officer from the Kalyangiri RTO points out, “Our traffic wardens have a tough time enforcing the helmet rule on roads. Now it's become even tougher distinguishing which helmets can be worn on roads and which deserves to be banned. Thanks to the mini-helmet craze, every-one wants to flaunt one on their heads unmindful of the risks involved”.
Procured all the way from Delhi (which also doubles up as the capital of the helmet industry) these brain buckets are made up of inferior plastic foam that can split up into numerous pieces even at a collision occurring at (this is no joke) 10kms/hr !
What is even more annoying is the fact that these helmets are basically illegal and fail to qualify under the minimum helmet safety standard test. Yet our traffic cops seem to be deferent towards this as they are yet to get any sort of authorisation from their higher-ups to enforce the rule strictly.
Worse, demand for these brain buckets often exceeds the ratio of supply, as a candid Ram Avatar tells us. Native to Delhi, Ram Avatar is one among the many roadside helmet vendors plying their trade in our city. He enlightens us that the clients themselves demand mini-helmets even when he tries to sell an 'ISI' branded head gear. “In my home State, these helmets are illegal. Why, they aren't even considered to be helmets in the true sense! Hence manufactures push their merchandise further south and they earn handsome profits.”
When asked why these helmets are so popular, Ram Avatar shrugs his shoulders and says, “Maybe because of its better visibility, light structure and weight”. Moreover, it's the price of these helmets that have paved a way for its undiminished popularity.
Purchasable at a down-to-earth rate of Rs.60 to Rs.90, they are easy on the wallet, light on the head and fits perfectly into any glove box!
“But why taunt fate?” asks Ramesh Babu, proprietor of Mysore's oldest hel-met showroom (Variety-Ashoka road). Into the helmet business for the past 40 years, Ramesh harks on the purpose of wearing helmets that are safe, time-tested and durable.
What motivated him to start a helmet enterprise? The memory of friends lost in bike accidents during his salad days.
“It is the foolishness of the people that they complain about hair loss, sweaty foreheads, hearing loss and low visibility during riding if they wear helmet; whereas if they don’t wear helmets, they will not have a head to worry about”, rues Ramesh Babu ironically. “People are more concerned with their looks and don't give a peanut about their precious lives” he sums up.
Well, today you can find many college goers and old men wearing full-face designer helmets and graphic endorsed convertibles (flip-ups or modular helmets) minus the chin-straps. People need to know that wearing a helmet without the chin straps affixed together offer no protection whatsoever.
Maybe it's high time our State government did their homework in bringing an end to the mini-helmet craze.
After all, it's worth reminding oneself of the old time-honored phrase, “Safety first, convenience later!”
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