Lalbazar: Traffic officers in Calcutta are banking on Marvel maverick Deadpool to do what the threat of prosecution and no petrol have failed to achieve: get motorbike riders to wear helmets.

A post on the traffic police's Facebook page shows Deadpool, the wisecracking mercenary with super accelerated healing powers, wearing a helmet and seated on a fiery-red scooter. The caption reads: "I have super healing powers... You don't!! Always use helmets."

The post has been a runaway hit - just like the film - with more than 1,300 "likes" and 748 "shares" till Monday night.

Two-wheeler riders without helmets is a common sight in this city and the primary reason for fatal head injuries in road accidents.

Sumit Kumar, deputy commissioner of police (traffic), said the post was intended to increase awareness among people in a way they could relate to.

"Deadpool is a character that is loved by young people and we have used him as a medium to spread our message. The response has been great," he told Metro.

According to Kumar, the majority of motorbike riders are in the age bracket of 18-30 and the idea is to connect with them by using a superhero currently ruling the box office.

"Deadpool has a cult following and the film of the same name is currently running in all multiplexes. We will keep using popular comic-book characters to spread the message of traffic safety," Kumar said.

In 2013, Calcutta police had launched a campaign on Facebook that featured the iconic Abbey Road album cover of The Beatles.

The photograph of John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and George Harrison walking single file through a zebra crossing with the slogan "If they can, why can't you?" still features as the cover photograph of the traffic police's Facebook page.

Niladri Basu, who rides a Yamaha R1 superbike, described the post with Deadpool on a scooter as reflecting "the language of the youth".

Accidents involving motorcyclists and pillion riders without helmets have claimed several lives this year. In April, a young woman riding pillion with another on a friend's motorbike was run over after the two-wheeler hit a truck on the Bypass-Park Circus connector. Priya Singh, the 17-year-old victim, wasn't wearing a helmet.

On May 1, a 50-year-old studio technician riding pillion on a motorbike was killed after it hit a guardrail near Tollygunge Metro station.

Neither Lalu Majhi nor Panchanan Haldar, the 19-year-old man who was with him, had a helmet.