While filming
for a TV show in India in 2018, Niels Peter Jensen was appalled to see that most people riding
scooters and motorcycles through the busiest traffic in the world don’t wear
helmets. Witnessing a two-wheeler accident involving a small child marked him
profoundly. As a father and a biker, he felt compelled to do something that
would help bring about a change. After many discussions with locals and with
his colleagues and friends in India and abroad, Niels launched ‘Helmets for
India. Safe ride for everyone, everywhere!’
He started by calling the government of India to understand the
statistics of motorcycle accidents and deaths in India. “The safety requirements
for two-wheelers in India are still catastrophic and the statistics shocking.
India has the most traffic deaths worldwide that include 327 motorcycle deaths
each day. Not surprisingly, most motorcycle deaths are a result of head
injuries. Wearing a motorcycle helmet securely can reduce the risk of death by
40% and the risk of heavy head injury by 70% (Based on the WHO Global Status
Report on Road Safety 2018). Despite knowing the importance of wearing helmets,
the riders choose to take it lightly and the pillions and children riders are
the most neglected of this hideous reality” shares Niels.
Niels is originally from Germany. He is an internationally
renowned mountain biker, an Extreme Sports athlete, TV Host, designer and if
this list is not long enough, a father of 4. Just after his first visit, he
felt this urge to bring about a change in our country in his own way. When he
went back, the road safety issues and the negligence towards helmets made him
not just think but also work very hard towards finding a way out to resolve the
issue. After sleepless nights, endless discussions and working back and forth
with many brands, he was glad to have five brands on board who lent their full
support for the cause. He wanted the helmet brands to come forward as a
community and be a part of this great cause and when ARAI (Japan), one of the
biggest helmet manufacturers from the world joined hands, Niels knew he was in
the right direction. Hedon (UK), Nexx (Portugal), Nolan (Italy), Sena (US) were
the next ones to follow.
“It wasn’t easy, it
took time, but it felt like a great first step towards the bigger journey,”
says Niels.
“When planning to
come back to India for this cause started, I wanted to come to Goa since it was
a place on my list that I wanted to tick off. I decided on doing a road trip
with a few other riders and chose that as a means to distribute helmets en
route. After a lot of planning, discussions, we formed a core team including
Ganesh Shinde, an artist, and biker from Mumbai popularly known as Miles On
Canvas who has been instrumental in the on-ground planning of the trip and also
I love the way he paints his journeys on helmets, then we were extremely happy
to have, D*Face from UK, a leading figure in urban contemporary art, Francesca
Gasperi from Italy, a motorcycle test rider and photographer and Caro Fitus
from Germany, a biker and lover of life.
It was an 8-day long
road trip from Mumbai to Goa, wherein navigating our way through different
terrains we visited many villages and distributed helmets to those who looked
in a need of it. We had our special focus on the pillion riders, women and
children so that we can contribute a little towards their safety. On this trip,
we distributed around 400 helmets,” says Niels.
The team also
participated in Moto Art Show - Helmets for India which was India’s first
custom art helmet exhibition.
There were many
challenges as well, for instance, Niels involved artists from across the world
to get art helmets in India, but he learned much later that those foreign-made
helmets were not allowed in India. One of the other major setbacks was that the
funds collected were not enough to support the trip for 12 people, because it
involved travelling from different parts of the country to India for nine
people, then the cost for stay, food and everything for the road trip within
India, but Niels did not give up, he was very clear in his mind that he wasn’t
doing this for money and neither he was going to stop if the money wasn’t
sufficient, he funded the trip with his own money and implemented just what he
had planned.
The last helmet
distribution took place in Goa and also a small event talking about their
journey was organised as part of Sunday Stories by Enfield Garage Café.
A
coffee table book summarising the team’s experiences in India highlighting the
cause and their goals is what is planned in the next month. After that Niels
wants to focus on creating as much awareness and funds as possible and try to
achieve his target of distributing 1000 helmets in the year 2019 in India. By
the end of the year, Niels plans to auction the art helmets that the riders
wore and the funds raised would be used for rehabilitation of the kids
suffering with head injuries due to motorcycle accidents and some funds will be
used in getting more helmets for distribution. Niels wants to set up a
manufacturing unit in India for helmets where these state of the art helmets
can be made and then distributed.