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.