Road accidents involving students without licence on the rise in Coimbatore

The police said that minors and students without driving licence account for a major share of the accidents in Coimbatore, upto 800 accidents have been registered in last six months.

July 25, 2014 09:39 am | Updated 09:39 am IST - COIMBATORE

The traffic police attached to Coimbatore City Police strongly feel that many accidents in the city could be averted if parents did not allow their children aged below 18 years to drive geared vehicles.

The police said that minors and students without driving licence account for a major share of the accidents in the city.

Statistics available with the police reveal that there were close to 800 accidents in the city during the first six months, this year. According to them, around 100 persons were killed in these accidents while about 650 were injured. In one-fifth of these accidents minors and youth driving vehicles without a licence were involved , a police official told the Hindu on the sidelines of a meeting for traffic police personnel that was recently organised in the city.

“Accidents involving minor offenders are less during the first half of the calendar year. It is because a majority of them are occupied with examinations and summer holidays when they don’t take bikes to school.

Accidents involving them climb to a third of the total accidents from July to December when academic institutions reopen”, sources said.

According to the police, a majority of the traffic violations involving minors are rash driving and over speeding, riding on footpaths and riding with more than two people on a two-wheeler. “The violations result in injuring minors, other vehicle users and pedestrians as well”, sources said.

Some schools have been able to put an end to minors coming to schools in geared vehicles

“When schools refused to allow such vehicles inside the institution, they (wards) park them at their friend’s house near the school”, the police said.

After studying various cases in the city, police say that some parents gifted their minor wards bikes as a token of appreciation for performing well in studies..

“While some parents are unaware that their children could drive vehicles, others take pride in boasting about the same”, they added.

“There are incidents when parents pick up a quarrel with us in support of their children, who violate the road safety rules and are caught red handed by us or when we seize their vehicles”, the city police said.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.