manoj

Cocking a snook at rules that stipulate 18 as the age for driving a vehicle, schoolchildren in the city are driving cars to their schools.

Traffic police themselves admit that schoolchildren driving cars has become quite common here. On Monday, the traffic police did begin a drive against teenagers riding. But the drive was restricted only to two-wheelers.

Traffic police officials have said that they plan to crackdown on these teenage car drivers after they came across several educational institutions where teenagers zipped past in their four-wheelers unmindful of the fact that cops are watching. At 11 educational institutions, including schools and junior colleges, 548 students were caught for driving two-wheelers without a licence in a single day. Of the 548, 241 including 54 girls were schoolchildren studying in classes VIII, IX and X.

These students were fined Rs 500 each. Of the Rs 500, Rs 200 was for driving without a licence and the rest was against the owner of the vehicle for permitting a teenager, without licence, to drive.

Their two-wheelers were detained at local police stations and handed over only after their parents reported at the police stations. However, most parents expressed helplessness in stopping their children from driving without a licence.

When the police rang up a parent, he seemed to be proud of the fact that his daughter was confident enough to drive a two-wheeler on city roads.

“I am proud of the fact that she is able to drive a vehicle,” the parent reportedly told the traffic police. Many parents cited lack of adequate public transport system as the reason. They told the traffic police officials that they themselves gave their wards vehicles to travel to school. The educational institutions where the drive was conducted included Hyderabad Public School in Begumpet, Gitanjali Senior School in Mayur Marg, St Ann’s in Secunderabad. The junior colleges included branches of Narayana and Chaitanya in the city.

“At 16, one is neither emotionally nor physically strong to control a vehicle in adverse situations. Parents should realise this fact before allowing their children to drive,” said additional commissioner of police (traffic) A K Khan.

The traffic police have written to the various schools and junior colleges in the city asking them appoint two staff members each who could keep tabs on the students at opening and closing hours.

This way they could find out which student is getting a car or a two-wheeler and stop them at the entrance.

Source:http://epaper.timesofindia.com (Hyderabad Edition)
Date Of Publish:15-Nov-06

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