16-year-olds can legally possess a licence to drive vehicles with
engines upto 55cc. The question is: Do they have the emotional maturity
to stay safe on the roads? In the hands of some youngsters, a motorcycle can be a dangerous toy
Years ago, while driving in the southern suburbs, I
caught a glimpse of an elegiac flex board that lamented the death of a
youngster. To all appearances, it had been put up by his friends, who
identified themselves as stunt bikers. I don’t know
if it was a throttle of professional motorcycle stunt riders who lived
from one performance to another or a pack of young biking enthusiasts
who attempted stunts every weekend. The cause of the untimely death also
remains unknown to me. I filled these gaps in information with
calculated assumptions. To this day, I have believed the unfortunate
young man was killed in a motorcycling mishap. Given that young
motorcyclists are often seen weaving dangerously through traffic and
frequently reported to be involved in road crashes, this is not a wild
assumption.
Every time an accident of this nature is
reported or witnessed, it brings distress to parents and the close kin
of youngsters who try to prove a point with their two-wheelers.Some
of these worried adults want to snatch the ‘dangerous toy’ from their
youngster, but can’t. Some avoid buying him a bike, but find out he has
friends who would readily lend him theirs. When confronted, the typical youngster may raise hell and wave his driving licence at them.
According
to the law of the land, a sixteen-year-old can be issued a licence to
ride motorcycles with an engine capacity up to 55cc. To drive machines
with bigger engines, the youngster has to wait for his 18th birthday.
However,
one can safely assume that even at eighteen, the majority of youngsters
lack the maturity to avoid danger on the road. To word it more
appropriately, they cannot avoid courting danger. Sometime ago, a
motoring enthusiast and a responsible biker told this writer that he
would forbid his son, who was in his late teens at that time, from
riding powerful motorcycles for a few more years. The father said it
took “emotional maturity” and “biking experience” to steer away from
potentially dangerous situations and these, often, came with age.
It’s
an impressive and exemplary stand taken by a dad. There is going to be
peer pressure, goading his child on to perform scary stuff with the
bike. He knows he could do little about that. What he could do is lay
clear lines for his child to stay safe within. It’s a case of a parent
taking responsibility for his child’s safety. When a
parent leads by example, which includes wearing a helmet while riding a
motorcycle and conscientiously following all other motoring rules, the
child is unconsciously being trained to behave responsibly on the road.
But
how many parents are committed to doing the right thing on the road,
and avoiding the convenient? “Isn’t it common to see a parent riding a
motorcycle, crowding it with his family?” asks T.S. Rangarajan, a senior
member of Madras Bulls, a motorcycling group built around the Bullet.
Later on, if this parent has to deal with risk-taking road behaviour by
his adolescent child, he won’t have a strong moral leg to stand on while
trying to influence the child to adopt safe driving practices.
Rangarajan
believes bike clubs can help instil safety consciousness in young
motorcyclists. He explains how safe riding techniques are imparted to
members at his club. “New riders are told they should not try to prove a
point on the road. If a motorist behaves like a schmuck driving rashly,
you don’t repeat his folly. You have to ride away from trouble at all
times,” says Rangarajan.
Education, which in recent
times includes bike riding schools offering classes to superbike owners,
and enforcement by policemen against reckless driving, covers a small
part of the distance towards keeping our youngsters safe on the roads. It’s home-schooling in safety that covers the rest of the way.
http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/in-the-hands-of-some-youngsters-a-motorcycle-can-be-a-dangerous-toy/article6982815.ece
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