After 5 die on one day, cops enlist ‘Yama’ to push safety

CHENNAI: With a few volunteers dressed as Yama accosting bikers as they halt at traffic lights, the city police hope that the alarm that the ‘god of death’ invokes will scare some sense into traffic offenders who put themselves in harm’s way by not wearing helmets.
The Chennai traffic policestartedthe awareness programme on Sunday, a day after after five people died acrossthecity duetohead injuries sustained in accidents on two-wheelers.


“One of the victims was set to marry next week; another had removed his helmet to talk to his friend,” a police officer said.

Mohanraj, 20, of Cuddalore, who had apprenticed at a company in Maraimalai Nagar for two months, went to the city airport on Friday with a friend, to meet the friend’s uncle.

They were riding two motorcycles. Mohanraj had removed his helmet to speak to his friend when a lorry hit his bike near Peerkankaranai around 1am, the officer said. He died of head injuries in a hospital on Saturday.

Prabhakaran, 33, of Chitalapakkam, met a similar fate after riding a bike without a helmet on the Tirumudivakkam-Thiruneermalai road. A truck rammed his two-wheeler at 9.30am on Friday.

Jayaseelan, a 60-year-old resident of Nammalwarpet, Purasawalkam, survived for more than a week after a fall from a two-wheeler on EVR Road on March 2, before dying of head injuries in a hospital on Saturday.

Murugan, 32, of Tambaram, also died on Saturday. The bike he was riding, with his father in pillion, collided with a bus on GST Road on March 5.

Vijaykumar, 24, lost control of his motorcycle and hit a median in Nazarathpet on March 6. The Chennai airport employee would have been married in a week.

Taken aback by the deaths, thecity traffic police recruited a voluntary organisation, whose members dressed up as Yama to harangue motorists not wearing helmets: “Wear a helmet or I will take you,” Yama said.

“It’s a big problem. Many people in Chennai ride bikes without helmets,” the officer said. “When they see a man dressed up as Yama, they get the message pretty quickly. It is a matter of life and death.”