The other day I saw a parent reaching his child to school on a motorcycle. The boy may have been at the most in class V. He was sitting in front of his father on the bike and was riding it. A few days later I saw a boy who must be in class VIII riding a motorcycle. He appeared to have just returned home from school. He was still wearing his school uniform. It is most likely that he had not even had his lunch. So eager and enthusiastic was he to ride the bike. He was not able to maintain his balance properly. A few days ago my sister became the unfortunate victim of such a young rider’s carelessness. He was barely fifteen years old and obviously did not have a driving licence. He came at full speed and banged my sister’s leg on the shin bone thereby causing fractures. My sister had to undergo surgery and a plate had to be inserted in her leg. She remained in extreme pain for a fortnight in the hospital.
There is a time and place for everything. Fruits mature and ripen when the time comes. You cannot get a child married when he/she is immature and does not attain the right age. You cannot hurry the sunrise. The same applies to driving. We must use our common sense and realize why there is a fixed age for you to get your driving licence. First and foremost the child is too small to carry his own weight around. How will he be able to handle a motorcycle which is so heavy? Therefore balancing becomes impossible. His intelligence and his reflexes have still not developed fully. He does not know how to avert danger. He is bound to cause accidents. The end result will be disaster for himself and others.
Most of the time riders who follow traffic rules strictly (as was the case with my sister) are at the receiving end of such accidents. What right does anyone, including children, have to endanger the lives and limbs of others? Why should innocent people suffer at the hands of underage drivers? The victim could be dead or maimed for life. He may be the only child of his parents, the sole breadwinner of the family or anyone else, for that matter. The pain, the trauma and the inconvenience that the patient, his family and near ones undergo are endless. Even monetary compensation paid to the victim is little relief. It cannot bring your lost one back neither can it restore what has been damaged during the accident.
I have heard parents give excuses like, “We do not know how the child got the motorcycle keys” or “The child does not listen.” You would not allow the child access to your gold ornaments or bank cheque book. So why give lame excuses? To make matters worse, sometimes parents are the ones who send children on errands with a motorcycle. What could be more horrifying than this? Wait for your child to reach of age before he can learn to ride a motorcycle and obtain his licence.
If you cannot think about others and prevent your child from doing the wrong thing, imagine seeing the dead body of your own child on the street! That could help you.
