Bike stunt menace: Madras High Court calls for mechanism to reform reckless drivers

Youngsters booked for rash driving should not be branded criminals but should instead be reformed through appropriate mechanism, the Madras High Court recently said..In an order passed on March 18, Justice N Anand Venkatesh directed the Chennai Police to come up with a “conveyor belt” like mechanism, where youngsters booked for rash driving or performing motorbike stunts are placed on end of the belt, and they come out reformed from the other end..“The teenagers who are involved in such bike racing and reckless driving of vehicles should not be ultimately dumped as criminals and at the same time, they should also be made to understand the consequences of their reckless driving of vehicles. Therefore, there must be a mechanism like a conveyor belt where the teenagers who indulge in such reckless driving must get into the system and undergo a process and ultimately when they get out, they must have reformed themselves and will no longer involve in such reckless driving in future. Criminal jurisprudence in this area must be more towards reformation than branding such teenagers as criminals,” Justice Venkatesh said..Previously, while hearing a batch of applications filed by such offenders seeking quashing of proceedings against them, the Court had sought assistance from the city traffic police and the Tamil Nadu government to curb the menace of bike stunts and rash driving.On Monday, Joint Commissioner of Police N Devarani and Deputy Commissioner P Kumar told the Court that between January 2022 and March 2024, the city traffic police had registered over 23,000 cases of rash driving, racing and dangerous stunts on two wheelers.The police and the traffic department have also undertaken measures such as creating awareness through social media, keeping track of offenders, and even tracking Facebook and other social media posts made by repeat offenders, the officers told the Court..The State Public Prosecutor also said that the police had collaborated with adolescent psychology to make further intervention..The High Court then said that it will take the “present case as a sample case in order to evolve a mechanism to effectively deal with cases of this nature in future.”.“This Court expressed its mind to the learned State Public Prosecutor to the effect that the persons, who are indulging in such reckless driving of vehicles (two wheelers and cars) mostly fall within the age group of 18 years to 25 years. These are teenagers who are in the grips of hormones without sufficient maturity. That apart, high powered bikes are now easily available in the market and hence some teenagers involve in reckless driving of vehicles. To a great extent, social media is also having its impact on such teenagers, who post these heroic deeds in the social media platform just to get the likes and comments of others,” the High Court said..[Read Order]