First of all, sorry about the preachy tone of this post. Second, the content of this post is NOT child-safe, so be warned. Third, after reading this post, kindly reshare, if you feel it’s worthwhile.

I’m a techie in Pune. I keep late hours by choice, and I ride a motorbike. Like many others who ride two wheelers, I never, ever wore a helmet, but all that changed for me about a year and a half back, as a side-effect of a miraculous escape I had, from a serious accident. Suffice to say that I’ve never ridden my bike since, without a helmet. However, this post isn’t about that incident at all. This post is about something I saw on my way home tonight (8th December,2011).

It was the same, long, straight stretch of road, a road which tempts many to push their vehicles just that much faster than they should be going, especially at night, given very sparse traffic. I know the feeling well, because I’ve done the same on any number of occasions. Tonight however, the road was not deserted: there was a big crowd.

Sensing trouble, I slowed down. There was a lot of shattered glass and broken plastic scattered across the road. A little further ahead I saw the remains of a bike which had been involved in the accident. I think it was, or had been, a Honda Stunner. Nothing remained of its front portion and it had been propped up against the road divider by passersby. I could see a lot of people teeming around a car ahead, into which the victim had only just been moved.

Seeing the state of the bike, I started silently praying, fervently hoping that the victim was okay, but then, I saw something else. There was a big puddle, right where I figured the bike had originally come to a rest. It was a pool of blood. Sitting right in the middle of that pool of blood was a lump of tissue, unmistakable, even to my untrained eye. It was brain tissue, and a rather big chunk of it. The sight of it made my blood run cold, and it also made any prayers unnecessary. The victim was dead or was going to be dead in a few short minutes.

Pune does not have a compulsory helmet rule. Hell, I’ll be the first to argue that these compulsory rules only serve to help cops make more money in bribes, but that unknown victim could have probably survived this accident tonight had he been wearing a helmet. I see so many people riding bikes, helmet-less, and a great many, with helmets dangling from their helmet locks! Do we feel a false sense of security, thinking that accidents only happen to ‘others’ and not to us?

Do we need a legislation or the threat of fines to convince us to buy helmets and actually wear them, when we ride? People often give the most absurd reasons for not wearing helmets. They are itchy! They promote hair fall! They are inconvenient to lug around! Please, people, that unknown victim might well have been one of us, riding without a helmet. Would you rather wear that helmet, braving the inconvenience, or want to allow somebody, possibly a loved one, to find pieces of your brain in a pool of blood? Legislation or not, if you ride a two wheeler, please, pretty please, with sugar on top, wear a helmet. And bug the crap out of your friends who don’t, till they do so too. It could well be the best good turn you ever do to them.
Posted via m.livejournal.com.