Dr. Satwant Singh Rissam
In the last decade, there has been an enormous development witnessed on the Narwal-Nagrota bypass road on the outskirts of Jammu city. On the weekends, this road witness’s large footfall of people visiting dhabas, restaurants, coffee shops, etc. opened along this highway. This thing has also pulled the bikers and local motorcycle clubs to adopt this bypass road as a favorite spot for cruising with their bikes. Slowly, this stretch of road invited stunt biker groups which have now created a bike-stunt menace all along this road. With stunts and speeding, these bikers take it as a weekly adventure activity by jumping lanes and grabbing the attention of others. Most teenagers are involved in this activity, and they are seen performing dangerous stunts with their costly sports bikes.
Such bikers have grown in numbers and are seen operating in groups. Stunt bikers can be seen standing on the seat and riding their bikes on rear wheels only. Bikers compete within groups to outperform each other. They openly perform drifting, zigzag on this long stretch of road. Adding to this trend of dangerous biking is social media addiction in teenagers. These youngsters upload videos, of stunts like burnout, wheelie, and rolling stoppie, on personal social media accounts to grab attention. While such stunts are performed other road users get scared and many times create a situation for a dangerous mishap. Many collisions caused by these bikers on this road go unreported because some of these stunt-performing bikers are riding bikes without their number plates to escape police action.
Jammu police are aware of this ongoing activity. And police have kept a check on this road and recently some stunt bikers were booked, and their bikes were also seized. Yet police are unable to deter this activity fully because of occasional monitoring done on this road. Some permanent steps should be taken to avoid this grouping of dangerous stunt bikers and the situation will become better if a shift in the strategy is done by the police. Vigil in this area should be increased in a bid to prevent any unfortunate incident on this highway. Because for police single-handedly managing things is difficult so an initiative like ‘community policing’ can be of great help in tackling this issue. Locals residing in this area or having businesses or volunteers should be roped in to act as ‘eyes’ and ‘ears’ of police. These people can maintain a vigilant eye and inform the police on emergency numbers as soon as they notice stunt bikers’ activity. This would become a perfect method to tackle this problem.
For those found involved in stunt biking a stern message should be given by imposing heavy challan. Further, to tighten grip on stunt biking and to get to the root of the problem, parents of stunt bikers should be counseled to stop their children from getting involved again in dangerous activities. Parents need to understand that the worst thing that can happen is their child’s death or grievous injuries during stunt biking. And then there is nothing to be gained except regret. Also, action should be taken against the social media accounts of local youth who are highlighting these stunt bikers triggering trouble. Hitting the road every weekend for bike riding with the highest standards of safety makes every ride a perfect reason to celebrate. Surely, if steps are applied to break this dangerous routine, bike riding will have a new meaning and add zest to live this life.
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