The Halasuru Gate Traffic Police in Bengaluru has come up with an innovative idea to spread road safety awareness. It has deployed a ‘Yamaraja’ on the roads to warn people of the dangers of traffic violations like not wearing a helmet and overspeeding. [caption id=“attachment_4715701” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A man dressed as ‘Yamaraja’ chases traffic rule violators in Bengaluru. AFP[/caption] “We are observing July as a road safety month. As part of it, we are conducting various programmes such as lectures in schools and colleges and street-plays,” Deputy Commissioner of Traffic Police Anupam Agrawal told PTI. “Also, we thought of using the character Yama to send the message across that if you disobey the traffic rules, Yama will come to your home,” he added Veeresh, a theatre-artist is the man posing as Yamaraja and stopping motorists seen violating traffic rules. In some cases, he rode pillion on motorcycles that were being driven recklessly,
NDTV reported. But this is not the first time the city’s traffic police has come up with an innovative idea to tackle road safety issues and make people better aware. Earlier, the Bengaluru Police has used tweets with references to popular sitcoms and web series to engage with the young citizens and spread awareness.
What do you think its trying to say?
— ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು ನಗರ ಪೊಲೀಸ್ BengaluruCityPolice (@BlrCityPolice) June 11, 2017
On a scale of 1-10 for how ignorant you're when you dont care for your life, you're an ELEVEN. pic.twitter.com/gKVS2NmmSh
However, it is not just the Bengaluru city police which is coming up with such new ways to use social media for road safety awareness, even Mumbai police has been using various memes and GIFs to send out a message on being safe on the roads.
Wine now, whine later #SafetyEmoticon #DontDrinkAndDrive pic.twitter.com/9fVw5d6CkS
— मुंबई पोलीस - Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) February 8, 2017
In real life, you may not look as cute as the emoticon with an injury #SafetyEmoticon pic.twitter.com/cc25oxJ4dk
— मुंबई पोलीस - Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) February 7, 2017
Whereas, Kolkata Traffic Police had once used the picture of The Beatles showing them walking on a zebra crossing with the line “If they can, why can’t you?” to drive home the point of its use. Even the Chennai Traffic Police has used mediums like catchy video songs to raise road safety concerns. Another new trend catching up with traffic police is of the ‘dancing cops’. While, in Kolkata a traffic policeman named Ashok who is positioned at the Garia-Airport Metro railway project road has been famous for his moves while managing the choas on road, Indore’s Ranjeet Singh has been amazing commuters with his moonwalking skills. They claim to have reduced traffic violations with their eye-catching act, which in turn explains the idea behind the traffic police of various cities adopting such ‘cool’ methods.