BENGALURU : The number of accidents involving those below the age of 18 is cause for concern, say city doctors. The city witnessed 3,451 road accidents till the end of September this year, and according to Dr Firoz Torgal, Department of Emergency Medicine, Columbia Asia Hospital, around 10-15 per cent of these cases involve students below the age of 18 at the wheel.
When City Express spoke to a few students, most told us that they had no qualms driving a vehicle using a fake driver’s licence. Fractures, head injuries and other risks do not deter students, who say that the benefits of being able to use their own vehicles outweigh the risks of getting caught.
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Sunil Kumar (name changed), a 16-year-old student, told us that some traffic cops do not check the authenticity of the licence, and even let them pass if they find out that they are school students, to avoid getting in trouble. “They usually just advice us to be careful and not to get into trouble,” he said. He further explained that students tend to sneak out of their homes at night to go to parties, and some are lucky enough to not get caught by the cops. His friend, Raajkiran (name changed), had met with an accident near RT Nagar Police Station while riding his bike around 7 pm. “Luckily, I was wearing a helmet, so I was safe,” he says.
According to Dr E Kumaraswamy, Department of Emergency Medicine, Fortis Hospitals, 13 cases of school students between the ages of 13 and 18 years have been seen in the last three months. The previous quarter saw 17 cases, with most coming in with head injuries. “These cases are seen at night when students are intoxicated and ride without helmets. All cases are reported to the nearest police station. However, these cases are not properly investigated, and bribery may be the cause for this,” says Dr Kumaraswamy.
Shefali Tyagi, principal of NPS school, explained that they had a Class 12 student who had ridden a bike during non-school hours in the evening, and had got injured after an accident. “We were surprised that he had used a bike in the first place, so we called his parents and cautioned them of the dangers of allowing a student to ride without a licence,” she said.However, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) R Hitendra said that he had not come across cases where driving licences had been forged by students, and refused to comment further on the issue.