Underage drivers are new menace on Bangalore roads

In another incident, a nine-year-old was driving a scooter in Malleswaram. When stopped by the pedestrians, the audacious boy told the angry crowd, “I am the son of a sub inspector, do whatever you want.”

Parents who are rich, busy and government officials often attempt to use their clout to escape the embarrassment of visits to the police stations on account of their children’s reckless driving. These people pay up obscenely huge amounts to save their underage children from being held in remand homes.Strangely, parents themselves encourage such behaviour. They are proud when their six-year-old drives a Maruti van in the busy streets of Hyderabad or when their nine-year-old child rides a heavy 350 cc motorcycle. Even law makers ignore such incidents referring to them as sports.

According to an official, “In most cases, the parents are to blame. The affluent ones feel guilty for not having time for their children. In order to make up for this negligence, they promise their children two-wheelers to keep them in good humour and to reward them, even going to the extent of buying four stroke-powered Japanese two-wheeler motorcycles. The children are out there to impress the crowd.”

“Whenever an underage driver meets with an accident, he will run away from the spot. Later, some person with a driving licence will appear before the police and confess that he was driving the vehicle at the time of accident. This is done to make the offence seem less serious in cases where parents too have to share the responsibility,” the official added.

Very often in highway accidents, post-accident investigation reveals that young cleaning boys were at the truck’s wheel when the accident occurred. “The drivers are only too happy, either because they are tired, drunk or sleepy to hand over the wheel to cleaners. The young boys are too excited to hold the powerful steering wheel,” the official explained.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) H C Kishore Chandra agreed that if a vehicle driven by a minor meets with an accident, the parents share the responsibility. He explained, “Two months ago, the police conducted a drive against licence-less drivers in the city. Almost 403 cases were booked against children below 18 years driving without licences. We called the parents to the police station and explained the consequences of underage driving. While some were sorry, others asked, so what?”

The department feels helpless in these cases. Children cannot be arrested and officials hesitate to send them to remand homes.