There is little use to personal anecdotes in something as dangerous as riding motorcycles; hard facts should suffice more than circumstantial rolls of dice. It is a fact that helmets save lives and yet, so many in India will ride without them -- whether to preserve hairstyles, to feel the wind, or out of some unfathomable reason. Thirty seven per cent of the 1.5 lakh population who died on Indian roads in 2019 were on two-wheelers; 44,666 of those victims were not wearing helmets, according to the Transport Ministry data. Not all helmets are made equal, and from June 1, it was mandatory for helmets to bear the IS 4151:2015 standard mark, by virtue of the two-wheeler motor vehicles (Quality Control) Order, 2020. The commonly seen construction helmet, used to save the rider not from injury but from the ire of the policemen, will no longer do even that.
