So the other day our teacher decided to give us an assignment to write a research report through a survey. We chose without any doubts the topic of street-racing. Approved by the teacher we got down to business.
The survey was basically a research carried out to know what will it take, for the street-racers to stop racing on the street. What follows is our brief on the findings;
Those involved in racing on public streets are inarguably a threat to all the pedestrians, by-standers, fellow drivers and the riders/drivers themselves. It is said that speeds thrill but it kills, a lot of people do it for their sheer passion of (or) speed. However, after negative impacts cast over our society by movies such as Fast and the furious series have given another reason to mostly hot-blooded youngsters of gaining fame through doing stunt-driving on insane speeds. Some do it just to be the fastest amongst the racing drivers’ circle and without any professional training for controlling the car or bike on such speed is a tragedy waiting to strike.
Especially bikes, which encompasses very tedious nature when it comes to handling and the car and racing bikes on public places can shake the bike or even a car when they pass them on high-speed. Those people who said that they do it anytime meant that they will race anyone on any street if they provoked for a race. Such races are potential disasters because over-speeding in traffic means that the driver is relying on his instinct of judging the cars in the traffic. One wrong guess could lead to a horrible accident. Even though the majority of the people who took part in the survey avoided public places but that is a threat to the riders especially since there are no medical facilities available on time. First-aid is very important, globally or race circuits, it is very essential to stabilize the victim of the accident on the spot and then transfer him to the nearby hospital. Especial plans are made by doctors on the circuit to provide the best medical facilities whereas on street-racing, victims have to wait for ambulance to come and transfer them to the nearest hospital. Ambulance drivers also have no training to provide first-aid to the victims which could have saved a lot of lives and limbs which we learned through our survey.
Drag racing was found to be the most popular type of racing between both bikers and car drivers. Drag racing is a form of straight-line racing where the racers outrun each other by upgrading their bike/car engines to gain the maximum speeds, so that they can win over their competitor and earn fame, and money if it was a bet race. Although everyone responded positively, however, none of the bikes or cars upgrade the other vital parts of their vehicles to improve safety, braking power to stop their vehicle, suspension designed to take the speed and aero-dynamics to reduce air-friction on high-speeds.
The current steps taken by the traffic police are also not enough, although few persons said that even if they were strict rules implemented, they would have not give up racing on the streets.
More then 70% people who took part in our survey said that they would stop racing on the streets of the city if a race-track was provided with adequate safety measures while almost 30% people said they would not stop racing on the streets anyways. Those who responded in negative said its fun to race in traffic and they will not stop racing. However, one said that if laws are made strict and implemented as well, they could stop or they can stop if they are compensated for their races on a race-track.
Illegal street-racing in Pakistan is a threat to all the pedestrians, by-standers, fellow drivers and the riders/drivers who race on public roads. Government should accept motorsports as an industry and provide race tracks so that this menace can be moved from the streets to a proper built race tracks on international guidelines which is safer for everyone involved in the sports.
