Helmets to reduce weight, more airy from 2018

New Delhi : From next year, your head will feel light while you take a ride! Come January 15 and your new helmet will reduce weight by 300 gm and will be airier. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has amended the cap on maximum weight of helmets for bikers to 1.2 kg instead of the present 1.5 kg, which every manufacturer will have to follow.

The Ministry of Road Transport has also started the process to bring manufacturing of all motorcycle helmets under the mandatory regime to get BIS certification. This will mean sale of non-standard helmets will become an offence. “We will complete this process soon. This will end the menace of low quality helmets being sold in the market. The new helmets will also specify that these are meant for two-wheeler riders,” a transport ministry official said.

The new rule of using lighter helmets and mandatory provision for ventilation holes in the headgear have been made owing to the fact why bike riders don’t prefer wearing them. Sources confirm that more than 15,000 people died in road accidents in 2017 due to non-wearing of helmets. Road safety experts said it was still under-reported in India where 70% vehicles were two-wheelers and at least one-third of the people killed were two-wheeler riders.

BIS officials said the new norms will protect the skull and head. “That is the reason why we have not assigned any standard for cap like helmet as done by Vietnam and Thailand,” said an official.

Helmet industry expert Rajiv Kapoor, who was a member of the government’s panel to recommend revision of BIS standards, said, “The new norm takes care of the required strength of the helmet where the impact is more in case of an accident. All manufacturers have got six months to comply with the new norm.”