Panipat police to keep check on underage driving

Mukesh Tandon

Tribune News Service

Panipat, February 14

After the death of three teenagers in a road mishap on February 7, the district police and civil society groups have started a special drive to curb teenage driving.

The police have constituted special teams and started challaning underage drivers. Underage drivers are a common sight on city roads.

The police had collected Rs 2.95 crore as fine by challaning motorists last year, but challaned only 284 for driving below the permissible age and 282 for using mobile phone while driving.

“We launched a special drive to curb teenage driving in the city on Wednesday. We sought the support of social organisations and around 50 social workers of the city registered as road safety assistants,” said Satish Vats, DSP (Traffic).

“A special team of the traffic wing and road safety assistants started their work from Sector 12 on Wednesday. The team conducted a special drive in Model Town on Thursday. The drive will go on till February 28. We will focus on teenagers and minors driving vehicles,” he said.

“We called parents of underage drivers to the spot and made them aware of traffic rules. We requested them not to give vehicles to their children. On the first day, we challaned 25 underage drivers and counselled 250 parents,” he added.

Gaurav Leekha, member of the special team said they were supporting the drive because it was for the safety of children and every parent had to come forward. He said they appealed to school managements not to support students coming to school on their vehicles.

Teenagers Naveen, Kapil and Ankush were killed on February 7 when the car they were travelling in hit a truck. Their friend Mohit had been fighting for life at a private hospital in New Delhi.