Speed thrills but kills’, the most important warning signs along the roads seem to have just become a mere decorative piece of caution signpost. Regardless of organising awareness campaigns on road safety and conducting checking drives at regular intervals, so far, no substantial steps have been adopted to keep a check on minor bikers who feel proud in performing stunts while riding risking their lives.
Despite the city witnessing quite a number of teenage accident cases due to over-speeding where the youths are found flouting rules neither parents nor the traffic police have woken up yet. While the traffic police are busy penalising commoners for not wearing helmets and seat belts, they grossly ignore underage kids riding bikes and driving four wheelers, say city residents.
“Teenage kids can be spotted riding bikes at dangerous speed near schools and every nook and corner of the city every day. But, the traffic police hardly take any concrete step to tame them and curb the practice. Parents should be punished for allowing their underage kids to ride bikes but it appears the traffic personnel find it more ‘worthwhile’ to stop bikers and cars at major squares in the city for violating rules. Kids’ lives are at stake but helmet checking is more important for traffic police,” said Bhusan Kumar, a resident of Morhabadi.
Recently, after the death of three teenaged kids in a road mishap at Airport Road, Hinoo, Ranchi Traffic Police in April 2017 had issued a directive that stated formation of traffic squads to get hold of errant underage drivers.
Also, counseling of parents and guardians of all those kids who are found violating the traffic norms including cancelation of driving licenses for over-speeding were some major clauses. However, even after much hue and cry over the bike-riding issue, few errant teenagers at the busiest avenues are found performing stunts under the nose of district administration officials that claim decline in road accidents.
SP (Traffic), Sanjay Ranjan Singh said that after conducting campaigns on road safety issues, the cases of kids driving two wheelers have reduced to 35 percent since the beginning of 2017 in comparison to past records. “Besides targeting only the teenagers, we are also counseling their parents. On regular basis, we are also organizing awareness programme at schools and colleges to make the students aware about road safety norms. It is hard to change things overnight but we are trying our level best,” said Singh.
As per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) maximum number of deaths in 2015 under fatal accidents category were reported on two wheelers that are often drove by teenagers along the busiest routes during hushed hours. Meanwhile, the plan of District Transportation officer (DTO) to keep a tab on teens driving bikes seems to have been put in cold storage.
Earlier, as per the instruction of DTO, all schools were expected to take stern action against students coming to school on two wheelers. However, even after intimation to the school administrations for ensuring that no student below 18 years of age shall come to school on bike, several teenagers of different schools can be seen recklessly driving vehicles in State Capital.
“We can just try but the responsibility is upon the guardians. We are just hoping that with the campaign, we are able to make create some difference and bring change,” said DTO, Nagendra Paswan. On the other hand, some parents feel that at times they are compelled to give two-wheelers to their children. “I am not in a favor of giving scooty to my daughter who is studying in class 11 but looking at her priorities like tuition classes, I have to allow her to drive,” said, a Marketing Executive, Anushree Dey.