BHOPAL: The death of two minor girls in a road accident in Govindpura on Monday has left their families grieving. The two minor girls riding on a scooter were hit by a speeding loading vehicle. The incident raises a serious question, “Who is responsible for the deaths of these two minor girls?”
The minors were way underage to ride a vehicle. But, take a ride on any city street and one can easily find underage minors and teenagers riding their two wheelers. They often indulge in over-speeding, reckless driving and violating traffic rules. Most of them do not wear helmets. They also indulge in wrong-side driving. These youngsters, especially students above class 8, could be seen commuting to schools by their two-wheelers. They often take their friends with them on their vehicles riding double seat, triple seat and even four students on a scooter or a bike.
Pradeep Mishra, a resident of Bag Mugaliya, who works at district court said, “I was returning home recently in my car from Bhadbhada area. Four school girls riding on two scooters were moving ahead of my car. They were moving like water waves from one side of the road to the other without even worrying about the vehicles coming from behind. They did not let me pass till Depot Square and were constantly talking among themselves while driving.”
Ajay Tiwari, a resident of Shahjehanabad said, “I had gone to Shyamla Hills area near CM House. To my surprise I spotted around 150 minor students returning to their homes on their scooter after their exam ended at a private school in the area. There was a police checking point but the cops were least worried about the students violating traffic rules.”
Traffic cops maintain that it is the parents’ responsibility to stop children from driving without licence.
Childline director Archana Sahai said, “I was taking a lecture in presence of senior police officers when I asked ‘how many children know how to drive a vehicle?’ Many children raised their hands. It is actually not good. It puts their lives at risk.”
SHO Traffic Vijay Dubey said that some parents let their underage children drive vehicles, which is not right. Minors take shortcuts to avoid police checking thereby risking their and others’ lives by violating traffic rules, he added.
He said that last year the number of minors penalised was less because the schools were not open in full strength due to Covid-19 pandemic. DCP (Traffic) Hansraj Singh said that parental control is important on this issue. Police conduct checks regularly at various points.
