Yoga practitioner dies in mishap
Tags:
Tamizhmani, the son of Tamil Nadu minister for cooperation Sellur K. Raju, succumbed to head injuries after he was thrown from his two-wheeler when he hit a speedbreaker on NSC Bose Road in front of the Madras high court on Sunday night. Tamizhmani was not wearing a helmet when the accident took place.
The police patrol team shifted him immediately from the scene of accident to the Chennai general hospital. Tamizhmani, 27, was later that night admitted to Apollo Hospital with severe brain injury. He was declared dead on Monday.
“He was admitted at a critical stage and succumbed to injuries without responding to treatment by afternoon,” hospital sources said.
Tamizhmani was returning to his Greenways Road residence after attending a function in north Chennai when the accident took place.
“An autorickshaw driver noticed the accident and informed us. A police team took the injured to the GH. The victim, a yoga teacher, was not wearing a helmet when the mishap happened. If he had been wearing the headgear, the medical team could have saved him,” the police said. It was not a case of drunken driving, the police clarified.
“It looked like the speed of his vehicle was above normal. The bike, Enfield Bullet, skidded as the vehicle hit the speed breaker and he fell down,” the police said.
The postmortem was conducted on Monday afternoon. “The body is being taken to his native place in Madurai,” the police said on Monday evening.
Helmets are back in spotlight
Can’t be bothered to strap on a helmet while riding? You may be hauled up by the traffic police on Tuesday, with the helmet rule propelled back into the spotlight by young Tamizhmani’s death.
It may take a high-profile road death for law enforcers to wake up to casual flouting of the helmet rule, but neurologists and police do not understand the cavalier attitude of Chennai’s average bike-rider in refusing to wear a helmet.
“The figures say it all — 96 per cent of all two-wheeler accident deaths recorded were people who did not wear helmets. It is mandatory for both rider and pillion rider to wear helmets, but a large number are still flouting this law,” admits Sanjay Arora, additional commissioner, traffic, Chennai city police.
There is also a debate on how much resource and manpower the police should deploy to enforce the helmet rule.
Arora discusses the ‘other way’ of looking at the issue. “Many riders argue that the choice of wearing or not wearing a helmet should be left to them as it is their lives that are at risk. Some people question the wisdom in using too many of our resources to enforce this law,” he adds.
According to family sources, 27-year-old Tamizhmani was a professional yoga instructor; a disciplined young man and a sensible rider. A helmet could have perhaps saved his life.
Like minister Sellur K Raju’s family, the death of a loved one, especially a youngster, has left many families shattered.
The Rajiv Gandhi government hospital here receives roughly 50 bikers in their trauma ward each day.
Doctors here call for a stricter punishment for helmet-less riders.
Post new comment