Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

How ‘triple riding’ ’ turns fatal

— Photo: M.Vedhan

Dangerous: A family of four on a two-wheeler on Anna Salai on Monday.

CHENNAI: The fatal accident on Sunday in which a woman and her one-year-old son were killed is only a pointer to the dangers of women and children travelling on scooters.

Esther Doly and her one-year-old son, strapped to her back, died instantly when they came under the wheels of a water tanker at Manapakkam on Mount-Poonamallee Road.

Near the same spot, a similar accident took place in March 2007, killing an eight-year-old boy, while he was seated on the pillion of a scooter that was being driven by his mother. In that accident, a speeding mini-lorry hit the scooter and the boy fell on the road, sustained head injuries and died later in a hospital.

Traffic police in the southern suburbs of Chennai could not furnish statistics relating to the number of women and children involved in accidents while travelling on two-wheelers, but said they constituted a group that just could not be brought under their regular ‘enforcement routine’.

It was not easy to intercept two-wheelers driven by women or those on which a small family was travelling.

While women riders say they have little option left than to drop children in schools, police point out that they often took short-cut routes or simply the wrong direction to reach the destinations. Safety of children on road was “non-negotiable” and travelling in vehicles hired by educational institutions was a safer option.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Sunil Kumar said police had launched an intensive drive against triple-riding in the city since Friday. At least 150 cases were booked for such violations on Sunday alone.

“Motorcycles are designed to carry only two persons and taking a third person, even it is an infant, is legally an offence. We have written to the heads of schools and colleges to ensure that their students do not take the risk of triple-riding,” he added.

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