In any country in the world, there is a threshold after which children are allowed to do things by the Government similar to what adults do. Like get married, have sex, drink alcohol and even drive, for that matter. This is done so that they can be held responsible for their actions.
But, it is no secret that children do all these things without coming of age anyway, especially driving. We have seen countless cases of people dying while a minor was at the wheel and that’s why Hyderabad police have come up with a strict rule for any minor driving a vehicle even with their parents’ permission.
The Hyderabad police have decided to lock up the parents for a day for allowing their child to drive and also send the kid to the juvenile home. A magistrate court in Hyderabad sent 10 parents to prison for one day and also sent a 14-year-old to the juvenile home on Thursday.
A penalty of Rs 500 was also slapped on the parents, under Section 180 of the Motor Vehicle Act.
As reported by The News Minute, Vinod Kumar Kanumala, a road safety expert, was full of praise for the initiative and said,
“If police book ten more such cases continuously, and if the court jails all of them, then we will surely see a change in parents as well as in the minors.”
The parents told the BBC they were unaware of a rule which says they would be held responsible for allowing a minor to drive.
The campaign was launched last month and has already picked up the pace which is commendable. The Hyderabad Traffic Joint Commissioner of Police Dr V. Ravinder told ANI,
The campaign comes right after the crackdown on drunken driving after which the Hyderabad police collected around 2.2. crore in fines.
Do you think Hyderabad police went overboard or was this truly the need of the hour to teach people the importance of road safety and take it seriously? Let us know.