The report ‘Zooming youth knocks down woman, another three riders’ (Herald, May 7) brings into focus a few things. First is the lack of discipline at home which spills into the public place. The other is the lack of respect for human life that exposes the upbringing these ‘youth’ have had at home, and their parents’ failure to rein in their offspring.
No amount of write ups, letters to the editors, can inculcate road sense and education into the brains of ‘some’ individuals. Wearing helmets does not do any good when the helmet-wearing rider knocks down pedestrians, kills them and then flees from the scene showing scant respect for human life.
Driving on the Bangalore or Bombay highway, I have noticed and taken pictures to show that nearly 90 percent of the bike riders did not wear helmets and carried three persons on the bikes, sometimes even four. I don’t mean to say that if this is done in another State it should be acceptable everywhere, what I am trying to highlight here is that this is regrettable if not condemnable.
Traffic cops, while concentrating on issuing challans and collecting fines from non-helmet wearing riders, should also concentrate on number plates. Numbers should be legible from a considerable distance. Fast riders can easily evade the cops, due to the speed of their bikes and by having plates with fine line numbers they will evade being detected.
There have to be some days in the week when the cops fine those having fine line numbers painted on the plates and sometimes even pictures of people and gods on the plates.
Multi-toned horns are another nuisance that must not be allowed. Nobody is deaf on the roads not to hear a normal horn. It is time, if not already too late, that the Traffic Department think and plan how to make riding and driving on the roads safe for everyone without fear of getting injured or killed.
Traffic police should also maintain vigil on internal roads, instead of just issuing fines for non use of helmets and seat belts.
