Some time
back our government made wearing helmet compulsory for all motor bike
riders. The reason given for that was that it protects the rider in
case there is any accident so that he/she falls on ground due to
that. Many appeals were made to withdraw that rule but our HS refused
to do so and that rule became mandatory for all motor bike riders.
After
some time as we over see the effectiveness of this rule many
concerned people told me that there are more problems created due to
this rule than solved! First of all the very design of helmet is
challenged by some experts of this topic. They told me that the
design of the helmet has a rib like part at the back side and that is
at the level of neck. When an accident takes place and if
unfortunately, rider happens to fall in such a way that his neck hits
on that rib there are most chances that the neck breaks causing
immediate death. He told me many such accidents have been recorded in
Europe where people ride bikes at very high speeds. There is more
chance of death because of such wrongly designed helmet than not
wearing it.
That is
not all, the material used to make the helmet is so hard that it does
not break on the impact and by that actually passes the force of
impact directly to the scalp, possibly causing cracking of the scalp.
Technically, speaking material of the helmet is supposed to take up
the force of impact and break so that the force is relieved and scalp
saved; but that does not happen in case of these helmets approved by
our government. That means, the very purpose of forcing rider to wear
it is lost; nobody cares. There are other more dangerous effects of
these helmets. Rider cannot hear sounds of horns which help him
understand the condition of the traffic. If the rider is not having
sharp listening capacity he most of the time misses the warnings
given by other vehicles and this has caused many hits on the road for
which the rider is often held responsible. Whereas that is the fault
of the helmet design.
Worst of
all predicaments caused by these helmets is increase in cases of
chain snatching, purse snatching, pinching buttocks of women,
molesting passing girls by helmet wearing riders and pillion riders.
Because the rider is not visible as his head is almost completely
covered by the headgear people cannot identify who did the chain
snatching. In these types of crimes both rider and pillion rider wear
helmet and the pillion rider does the snatching. Now there is a
question of priorities. What is more important? Safety of the rider
or safety of walkers on the road? Our law makers are not intelligent
enough to distinguish between it and they prefer to give priority to
safety of rider above safety of walkers. Many untoward things keep
happening as antisocial element is very good in taking advantages of
our weak law system. That means a better design of helmet is the need
of the time and if somebody comes with a better design so that all
above given shortcomings are overcome; we should welcome it.
I have
done some homework on these shortcomings and here I wish to put my
suggestions, anybody who may try to use them and improve upon the
present design of helmet that should be welcome. Before we go in that
let us see some other types of head protecting gears those are in use
today. Here I am referring to head gear recommended for cyclists.
They are safe from all angles as far as our above discussion goes.
Then why not allow them for motorbike riders? Counter argument says,
cyclists do not ride cycles at speed bike riders do. They argue that
impact due to high speed is much more and so a better protection
required. This argument amused me because impact has more to do with
the weight of the rider than the speed. If riders are heavy impact
will be more as his weight matters in such cases. Bike riders at
speed of the rate 60 to 70 miles per hour whereas a cyclists speed up
to 50 to 60; that means the difference is not so much that a
completely different design is recommended. At the most a more robust
design provided but there is no need to make a total difference in
the design so that it becomes cumbersome to wearer and create other
problems. There are other types of headgears available for
comparison. Helmet used by cricketers or those used by football or
hockey goalie. These headgears are offering all round protection to
the player. They allow other people to see his face and above all
there is one advantage that person wearing it cannot use cell phone
as it is not possible to listen from outside the cage that covers the
face. One complain against it is that it does not offer enough
protection if person falls head on. For that an air cushion can be
fitted inside and that will solve the problem. If these headgears are
allowed to be used for bike riders as the faces of riders and pillion
riders are open there will be marked reduction in above mentioned,
chain snatching, purse snatching, pinching buttocks of women,
molesting passing girls, criminal cases.
One
designer told me that if these helmets are allowed for use on bikes,
a folding design of these helmets will be possible and that shall
solve one other nasty problem of keeping them when rider is not using
it, when the bike is parked very often rider has to carry it with him
to the place he goes and that makes it a nuisance. Present design has
a big problem and that is it is not folding. To sum up I would
suggest that much is yet to be done on this issue and I hope my tips
will encourage young people, who have to use them, in furthering more
debate on this subject. I hope, some intelligent designer may come with a better design of helmet.
You
may contact me on my Email ID given below,
You
are, invited to visit my other blogs if interested.
Ashok
Kothare
for stories
Freedom
of Expression
for intelligent discussions.
I
reckon
for philosophy
No comments:
Post a Comment