Two-wheeler borne terminator seeds

A two-wheeler is taken more as a pleasure packed machine than a mode of transportation. It gives us great convenience but at the same time causes social, familial and economic liabilities because of its mismanagement carried out by youths.

A Jayaprakash,  Kovilloor

A CURSORY look at daily newspapers these days give us stories about the deaths of young boys, either hit and run by other vehicles or hit against other speeding vehicles. This is really sickening. When one loses his life, a family loses its living. When one accident leaves one paralysed or bed-ridden, one’s family suffers financially, morally and physically. How may times have we seen boys take their two- wheelers for a ride and end up as causalities and in mortuaries? How many stories of hit and run have these boys read? Why are our youngsters not following the basic rules while riding a two-wheeler?

They have to wear a helmet if they are law abiding people and are ready to follow some basic principles while on the road. But unfortunately, a two-wheeler is taken more as a pleasure packed machine than a mode of transportation. This machine gives us great convenience and at the same time it causes great social, familial and economic liabilities because of its diverse mismanagement meticulously carried out by the neo-riche younger generation. Their egos are boosted and fired up by competing two-wheeler manufacturers through their heroic and impossible advertisement sequences aired on the visual media. Coupled with these is the never-learning parents and their obsession with the welfare of their other-worldly kids.

However, a huge number of two-wheeler owners are using it for their livelihood. A modern nuclear family finds this mode of travel economical and convenient in many ways. But giving them all a bad name, some miscreants on these two wheels wreack havoc on the road and they not only end up in hospitals and death beds themselves, but also hurt other innocent road users.

This cannot be left the same way any more. We need to have road-shows on the wiser use of this most user-friendly, environment-friendly and economical means of transportation. The road show needs to highlight the following:

• Two-wheeler is strictly for two people.
• Families with small kids can carry more than two, but there should not be any insurance cover for more than two persons.
• Helmet is not necessary, but he/or she cannot make insurance claims.
• If found carrying three or fours teens or adults on a two-wheeler, the vehicle should be confiscated, and criminal cases should be charged.
• All two-wheelers need to be fitted with speed breakers.
• Over-speeding should be taken as a criminal act and a threat to other road users.
• Altering the exhaust and making eerie noises should not be allowed.
• Using hi-fi horns should be strictly stopped.
• Riding two-wheelers without licence should be a reason enough to get minimum of three months of imprisonment.
• Talking on mobile while on the move should atleast get a minimum of one month’s term.
• All two-wheelers should be imposed with fitness certification.
• If minors are found on the wheels, the parents should be accountable and damages, if any, should be met by the immediate guardian of the minor and the owner of the vehicle will lose his licence; or face at least a few months ban on using the two-wheeler.
• Ordinary two-wheelers converted into sports quality ones by fitting huge tyres and other fitments should be made an offense.
• Licencing should be on the basis of tests at very strict test conditions.
• Minors and those who do not have licence should not be dispensed with fuels.

If a two-wheeler is found to be solely responsible for an accident and the liabilities thereof, the owner of the two-wheeler should be the only party to offset the damage, and the other vehicle, if any, that gets involved needs to be compensated by the two-wheeler owner, and the insurance companies need not follow status quo in this.

A good number of suggestions are a little difficult to implement in our country. The sheer number two-wheelers, the stakes of the manufacturers and marketers, the rising need for faster mobility, and above all the poor condition of our roads are blocks on the way of adopting a danger-free two-wheeler culture.

But I firmly believe that it is all in the family. Modern nuclear families need to understand that a rash drive on a two-wheeler is the worst thing one can do in one’s life. It is a good idea to reach a place a little late rather than ending up in intensive care units (IGU) much faster. Two-wheelers have left hundreds of thousand of people on wheel chairs. Families taste the bitterness of speed and thrill. Children in their teens are found to be more vulnerable to this menace than others.

How many two-wheeler riders know that their hold on this beautiful world and the other world is a few inches that their two tires desperately keep on their rash road to ecstasy? Parents must inculcate in their kids the need for being decent no matter what they do. Managing a vehicle is a gentleman’s job. Atrocious behaviour on the wheels will wreack unimaginable havoc. Two-wheelers are the most cost effective and fuel efficient mode of transport.

We have to harness its qualities for our general well being. Parents must teach their kids about this. The coming generation will be free from the killer effects of this beautiful machine.

Tailpiece:

And you macho parents, remember, it is idiotic and ridiculous to let your three/four-year-old child, sitting on the fuel tank, manage the handle bar of your two-wheeler. You have innumerable other means to make the rest of the world know that your son is the chip of old block; idiotic, stupid and ridiculous. You better do something else offset your ego, and save your family from the misery of a potential two-wheeler borne terminator seed, your very seedling.