Kids on motorcycles

A different menace has arrived in Rawalpindi -- kids on motorcycles. You know, those metal objects with handlebars that kids like to pick up and swing around in the air before slamming them down hard on the street. Some ill-fated guy who gets in the way can be really wounded.

Most parents just look on permissively, without any effort to stop them using what seems to be a terrifying weapon in a jam-packed place. Just yesterday, I saw in horror a small gang of five kids scurrying by on their motorcycles, giving pedestrians less than an inch of clearance. If any of the pedestrians had changed direction or put one of their hands out, he/she could have been seriously hurt. One little kid went past an elderly lady carrying two bags of shopping who was walking near the kerb. How he managed to get between her and the kerb, was just surprising. The slightest movement by her would have caused an accident as somebody would have fallen on the road, in the path of fast-moving cars.

It's frightening and threatening for people who are walking -- they can't see these motorcycle riders coming up from behind. Ageing people can't always hear them and they definitely can't be expected to move out of the way in time. There are times when we are talking with friends without realizing that someone is swinging a heavy, metal object very fast and right behind us. I think these metal objects should be banned in congested public places and streets. They should not be seen as kids' playthings as they are capable of putting someone in hospital. It isn't just kids who can be a menace. Where I live a grown-up boy with a not very full-grown brain went hurrying along a street and ended up going head-to-head with a tangible lamp post and lost control. He could not survive.

Motorcycles even by adults should be driven unhurriedly, level headedly, and with reverence for others, not head down at full speed like the ruffian kids. Then we won't have a problem with them as well. Those who don't realize that motorcycling by a kid like an adult riding a full sized two wheeled metal object is unsafe, egotistic, and unlawful, conceivably they don't have a whole brain. These motorcycle kids are a real nuisance where I live. It isn't too uncommon to see a kid aged 10 to 12 years, ride to school on these, for no other reason than to look cool. I just don't see the reason for this. Motorcycles are not designed for primary school kids. The root cause of menacing motorcycle kids needs to be addressed immediately.