Parents forced to buy bikes for teens

Hyderabad: 15-year-old N. Bhanu Kiran from Dilsukhnagar was hell bent on having a bike of his own. He even threatened his parents that he would stop going to school if they did not buy him one. Despite every effort of his parents to dissuade him from driving on the dangerous city roads at such an early age, he remained adamant.
His father, a trader, finally buckled under pressure and bought him a Yamaha FZ bike. Within three weeks, Bhanu met with a major accident and sustained serious injuries. It took two months for his injuries to heal.

His parents claim that Bhanu’s desire for a bike was fuelled by his friends, most of whom had one.

Police officials blame peer pressure and parents who pamper their children as the major reasons for such bike accidents among youth. Most school managements in city also do not bother about their students using their own vehicles to commute to school.

“Most parents we talk to at the time of counselling after we catch their children on roads, complain that their son or daughter was very stubborn and so they were forced into letting them drive the vehicle. Some parents blame the bad condition of public transport and say it is easier for their children to use personal vehicles to go to school,” said a traffic police inspector from Cyberabad police.

Mr P. Sudheer Kumar, a private junior college teacher from Narayanguda said that there were several teenagers studying in his college, who regularly rode bikes to college despite the fact that most of them did not possess a licence. “If we ask them to not use vehicles, their parents would confront us and ask us to mind our own business,” he added.

Senior police officials say that it is the duty of the parents to stop their children from riding such vehicles in the very first place.

“The school management also should take this matter very seriously. In the recent awareness programmes, we had convinced the school principals about the gravity of this issue,” said a senior traffic cop.