The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : A well-knit transport network needed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 11, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

A well-knit transport network needed

City Bureau

As per rule minors should not ride two-wheelers with engine capacity exceeding 50 cc

— Photo: K. Pichumani

HOW SAFE IS IT? A school student riding a scooter at Anna Nagar.

CHENNAI : If you are a citizen with some social sense, then you must be worried about the increasing number of school students, most of them minors, riding two-wheelers.

Of course, traffic planners and enforcers also say they are concerned about this trend.

New meaning

This week, the issue got a new meaning after the death of a student at K.K. Nagar on Sunday, who was crushed under the wheels of a Metropolitan Transport Corporation bus.

A Transport Department officer said that though many students go to school by two-wheeler, not many school authorities are aware of the rule that minors should not ride two-wheelers beyond the engine capacity of 50 cc.

The Motor Vehicles Act clearly stipulates that those who have completed 16 years of age can obtain a learner's licence for riding a two-wheeler with 50-cc capacity. Even in such cases, the Transport Department obtains a mandatory undertaking from the guardians or parents that they will "accept responsibility for his/her driving."

Asked whether the Transport Department was initiating action against students riding two-wheelers, the officials said they normally seized the vehicle and asked the children to bring their parents who, in turn, were briefed on the nature of the violation and were given a pamphlet on road safety.

The traffic police authorities on their part note that they conducted a drive against students riding two-wheelers to schools. The drive began on June 7.

Sunil Kumar, Joint Commissioner of Police, (Traffic), said: "There may be rare cases, but at least 200 students, who were found riding two-wheelers to schools, were stopped. With the cooperation of parents and school management, this has become possible to a great extent."

A traffic police officer said the problem of teenagers getting killed in road accidents could be prevented only when the parents discouraged their wards from riding two-wheelers even within residential localities until they turned 18.

The Education Department officials have asked city schools to check students' licences on a regular basis.

They have asked the teachers to make sure that such students wear helmets and carry proper documents.

J. Jesuraj, principal, Santhome Higher Secondary School, said though only a few students commuted by two-wheeler, teachers checked their documents on a regular basis.

Ramaa Subramaniam, Principal, DAV Higher Secondary School, discourages students from using two-wheelers.

In fact, she sends circulars to parents periodically and requests them to consider alternative modes of transport for their wards.

Volume of traffic

"With the volume of traffic increasing every day, why should children take the risk? But despite our requests, if parents choose to send their children by motorbike, we ask for copies of their licence," she says.

However, citizen activists add a crucial dimension to the issue: young students use two-wheeler not merely for thrill but also because it is a much more dependable way of reaching school or a tuition centre.

Inadequacy of buses forces young boys and girls to adopt unsafe methods to reach their destinations.

A city aspiring to become an international destination ought to have a traffic and transport network that caters for a variety of road-users.

They could start with stricter monitoring and regulation of traffic, especially of heavy vehicles in school zones in places such as Alagirisamy Salai-Ramasamy Road Junction at K.K. Nagar where the student was killed on Sunday.

(With inputs from P. Oppili, L. Sri Krishna and Meera Srinivasan)

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