Hanoi: Nearly 700 road users were checked this Tuesday morning in Kongoussi during a large-scale awareness campaign on helmet use, conducted by the National Police. The vehicles of offenders were impounded by officers under Police Lieutenant Dramane Badolo until their owners returned, helmets in hand.
According to Burkina Information Agency, the commander of the urban corps of the central police station of the city of Kongoussi, Police Lieutenant Dramane Badolo, invited road users in the city on Tuesday to adopt the wearing of helmets to protect their lives, through a special awareness operation carried out in the morning. The operation began at 6:30 a.m. and allowed police to check nearly 700 users, mainly motorcycle and tricycle drivers, who were riding without helmets.
"This time we wanted to make the awareness campaign a little more rigorous, by immobilizing the vehicles and inviting users to go back and get their helmets before returning to collect them and continuing on their way," explained Lieutenant Dramane Badolo. According to his explanation, the operation also revealed that several users have helmets, but do not make a habit of wearing them.
The affected users were asked to return to collect their helmets before retrieving their vehicles. Upon their return, they benefited from further awareness sessions on the importance of consistently wearing a helmet. Lieutenant Badolo indicated that this operation is part of the dynamic of the highest authorities in the country, who have made road safety a national priority.
Offender Rosine Sawadogo welcomed the initiative of the National Police which, in her opinion, aims to raise awareness among road users about wearing helmets. She recounted, "This morning, I got up to do some shopping in the city. Unfortunately, I hadn't worn my helmet and I was stopped by the police. They raised awareness by inviting us to wear helmets, which we did by bringing our helmets back."
The provincial director of the National Police in Bam, Chief Commissioner Harouna Belem, indicated that the awareness campaign on wearing helmets will be extended to all cities in the province. He urged people to purchase helmets and wear them regularly when traveling to help reduce the impact of traffic accidents. It's worth noting that this helmet-wearing awareness campaign was also conducted in collaboration with the Kongoussi Citizen Watch group.