The fast and the curious: Why you should advise your children to drive responsibly

In light of the recent accidents involving young drivers, The Coach advises parents to teach their children to drive responsibly
Pic: Edexlive
Pic: Edexlive

The recent accidents involving young drivers in Hyderabad, especially the recent one where an Audi hit an autorickshaw, killing a 37-year-old, has sent a chill down everyone’s spine. As I’m writing this, the latest news is that another citizen — a farmer — was killed after being hit by an SUV that is owned by the son of Karnataka’s Deputy Chief. In this article, I hope to address and appeal to parents to teach their children responsible driving.

Dear parents,
I know that a majority of you want to be cool dads or moms and seek the approval of your kids in order to bridge the generation gap or to have a better rapport. Yes, I suggest this approach sometimes, but you need to put your foot down when it comes to anything that is against the law, especially drugs, violence and rash driving. 
Here’s what you need to remember:

Tougher rules in this day and age
The rules are much stricter now. The Motor Vehicles Amendment Act 2019 has become more stringent and provisions now dictate a three-year jail term for the owner of the vehicle and also ensures that the kids be tried under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act. The registration of the vehicle shall also be cancelled, which makes it a life-changing incident in the wrong direction. Is it really worth the risk?

Big brother is always watching
Irrespective of how rich or how well connected you are politically, it’s going to work against your favour. The times are not like before where many could bribe or pull strings to get their kids off, scot free. Today, even the most unassuming person will have a camera phone and will know how to record an incident. The media 
today is much more responsive and alert and, within no time, your actions will blow up to a level where even the most powerful might be rendered helpless and will have no option but to face the consequences. 

Social Media: What goes around, 
keeps going around
What’s an even faster way to spread the word than media? Social Media. It will make the videos go viral in a second. Careers have ended because of things going viral on social media. There’s an Instagram story, TikTok video, Facebook Live stream or a camera on, always.

History needn’t repeat itself
Yes, you might have had some wild stories from your college days, I have some too. But the environment was completely different then, traffic was less, we had empty stretches of roads in deserted areas to play around without harming anyone. Today, due to rampant development and also the factors mentioned above, it’s just not possible to teach, practise or experiment without supervision and in a controlled environment. I say this not to discourage parents from sharing their adventurous stories but to ensure that they don’t influence their kids to do something stupid and ensure that they understand the consequences.

Lead by example
I’ve seen a lot of parents jump signals, drive rash, talk on the phone and drive and not follow speed limits. When parents themselves don’t follow the law, how can we expect the children to listen to our advice? We learn most of our traits from our parents, and parents need to understand this in detail. Simply put, be a role model to your kids in everything especially when it comes to following the law. 


With Regards 
Adarsh Benakappa Basavaraj
‘The Coach’

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