The latest drive against underage and drunken bike drivers has intensified in city after traffic police caught 17 underage bike riders on Thursday and several others on Friday. The traffic police have said that the drive against teens and drunken riders-drivers which was started after unfortunate death of three youth riding on same bike with no helmet on Sunday evening on airport road is there to continue without any break this time.
“We have asked principals of schools and parents not to allow their teenage students and wards to ride any bike, as this is illegal. We started calling parents to Police Stations after their wards were caught driving without helmet or without license, and this has started showing results. However, we have come across few of parents who in place of chiding their wards, have tried to influence traffic personnel itself. This approach, wherever it exists, is fatal to the health of their wards,” said Traffic SP Sanjay Ranjan Singh.
Prior to that, 11 underage drivers were caught and penalised on Tuesday and around one dozen and half on Wednesday by the traffic police. Primarily school children, all of them were caught riding bikes with unprotected head at various locations within the city during drives led by Traffic SP and DySP.
“We are doing whatever we can from distributing free helmets couple of months ago to seminars and workshops in schools and colleges. We have targeted to distribute some 21,000 helmets by the end of this year. But parents and school teachers have major role to play if they are really serious about the future of their wards,” said Singh who has to submit detailed report before Jharkhand High Court soon of what traffic police were doing to end road mishaps.
On the other hand, a section of Jharkhand Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FJCCI) traders have been preparing to approach to the government for easing traffic rules for scooty riding minors. “Scooty is a gearless bike and not so complex for riding. There is scope to ease law in terms of relaxation in age for riding scooty bikes,” said one of the FJCCI office bearers.