The death in a road mishap of top woman biker Veenu Paliwal has turned the focus of the country’s small but growing and close-knit biker community calling for a fresh look at regulations for superbike users.
Paliwal, 44, and fellow rider Dipesh Tanwar, were on a nationwide tour on their Harley Davidsons when her bike . skidded off a road near Gyaraspur, 100 km from Bhopal. She was rushed to a medical center where she was declared dead on arrival.
“It is saddening to hear of Veenu’s death. She was an inspiration to all those who aspired to ride,” says Urvashi Patole, member of Bikerni, a women bikers’ group. Questions over safety and regulations on biking are increasingly being asked as the city itself records a steep mortality rate when it comes to biking accident-related deaths.
Anish Chauhan of the city-based Bikers Brotherhood Club says, “There is no rider safety in reality. You can buy good gear, good helmets but when you are in a high speed crash, they are seldom of any help. Veenu had proper gear, but that didn’t help her.” He added that his biking group is planning to bring out a biker’s manual by end-April.
Easy availability of superbikes has seen a spurt in the number of these high speed machines in Mumbai and its suburbs. “Mumbai is a madhouse with chaotic traffic. It is very dangerous to ride a high performance bike within city limits. There should be a safety overhaul of the whole system,” says Amman Mithani, a member of biker group Enfield Pirates.
Speeding coupled with a lack of infrastructure contribute to the mortality rate as road quality is important in ensuring biker safety. Mithani says, “The licensing process by RTOs should be more rigorous. Nowadays, you can get a license without even taking the driving test. If the test is strict, rider quality will go up.”
Shubhabrata Marmar, editor (two-wheelers) at Overdrive magazine says a regulatory overhaul is the most important solution to ensure rider safety. He says, “No one really cares about bikers’ lives and populist regimes tend to go a little light on licensing regulations. Poor biking culture added to a bad licensing infrastructure becomes a huge problem.”
Additional CP (Traffic) Sunil Paraskar says bikers don’t follow traffic rules. “Bikers don’t wear helmets, lanes are changed randomly and sometimes these riders don’t have proper licenses. They have to ensure their own safety. RTOs and riders should work together to this end. Pillion riders must also wear helmets,” Paraskar said.
Mithani says there is better discipline on roads in other countries. “You have to respect your machine, you have to respect the roads. We, as part of a biking group, are extremely concerned with safety. We ride in formation and follow certain speeding norms. I guess biking groups around the city should do the same,” he says.
The writer is an intern at The Hindu
