Don’t Want Yamaraja To Take Away Your Life? Wear A Helmet: Bengaluru Traffic Police

As part of Bengaluru Traffic Police’s campaign to spread road safety awareness in the city, the Halasuru Gate traffic police deployed ‘Yamaraja’ on the city roads to creatively convey the importance of obeying the traffic rules.

Hence, ‘Yamraja’, the Hindu god of death himself, was spotted on the streets of Bengaluru on Tuesday, catching hold of motorists and warning them of the dangers of traffic violations like not wearing a helmet, talking over the phone while driving and over-speeding.

“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,” said Anupam Agrawal, Deputy Commissioner of Traffic Police, as reported by NDTV. “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.

According to NDTV, the police hired a theatre artist, Veeresh and made him transform into a mace-wielding ‘Yamaraja’, attired in his conventional golden dress and a pair of bright red shoes.

Advocating the importance of wearing helmets, the Yama mostly intercepted young motorists and warned them that he would not spare them. Along with an appeal to follow the traffic rules, he gifted them a rose each.

The Yamaraja even rode pillion on a motorcycle where the bike rider was without a helmet- clearly conveying the police department’s message that if you disobey the traffic rules, Yamaraja is right behind you to take away your life.

According to the police, this campaign aims to educate motorists and pedestrians about the importance of traffic safety rules. Such public awareness drives help in reducing road accidents to a great extent.

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Also published on Medium.