fazalwahab11375 is a road safety advocate. Love reading all his posts. Sometimes I do not agree that all his arguments hold true for our society (as seen in other threads and also seen below in this post) but I do share the ultimate objective of road safety.
Thank you for starting this topic. Recently there have been many threads in Spotted section where the totaled cars were shown and it was mentioned that the driver was a schoolkid.
About the poll: Why collect self-incriminating confessions from people, even if anonymous? It could as well be against the law and fall under false entrapment. You may want to put a disclaimer that you will ensure privacy of people, anonymity of statistics that this information will not be used for incrimination in any court of law. Please check about it to get you on the safe side.
For one I too disagree with the following:
It could change from place to place. In Pakistan many people get killed during mobile snatching, car snatching and wallet snatching as compared to traffic accidents caused by underage driver. Other threats present are kidnapping for ransom, which is a great business as it is a transnational crime. A routine fear is that of bomb blast. Getting blown to smithereens in a bomb blast where nobody can find/collect your smithereens or tell apart the smithereens of each deceased or even know that you were there could by far be worse than getting crushed under a car during a road accident. Every week, more people die in bomb blasts than those dying due to underage driving.
Another threat is road rage, in fact some biker would come and hit a car and fall. Then all the bikers would instantly become his brothers and try to impart street justice. They would either break the car's wing mirrors, scratch the paint, at worst drag the driver out of the car, beat him up, break the bones, break the nose and leave him bleeding all over the place. Some would attempt to burn the car also. Most of the times this happens with the drivers of commercial vehicles but in the last year (2014) it started happening with others also. Far more people have experienced losses of property, limb and life as compared to the people who have experienced loses due to underage driving.
Another threat is the security agencies who are escorting the public servants. There would be one Land Cruiser and 4 Hilux in front, 4 Hilux behind it, all loaded with gunmen, black tints, large mobile jammer in the bed of one of the pickups, they will simply push everybody down the road or ram other drivers into other cars. Some of them will also point your gun and attempt to 'shoot at sight'. If you do not yield, they stop and either beat you up or take you with them, where you could become a 'missing persons of Pakistan' headline. Some of the Pakwheelers have also received beatings, as evident from other topics.
Unfortunately all these 'worst' things on the road are out of scope of the subject of traffic safety, I just mentioned these off-topic to make realise that there are far worse and far common things as compared to underage driving as per Pakwheels main geographical area.
Now let's dissect the problem of underage driving. Underage driving has been present at nearly all times in Pakistan, but only recently it has gained newsworthy attention because now it has become deadly (starting with the case at Sea View in which a Liana ran over 4 labourers) or have caused many accidents. 3 types of underage driving happen:
- Sneaking the car without the knowledge/consent of parents.
- Underage driving under the (careful) supervision of parents with their knowledge, consent and presence.
- Underage driving (careless) with the knowledge, consent and encourage of parents in their presence/absence.
About the #1 type: Boys love cars (and/or motorcycles). In their life, nearly all boys will a) play with fire, b) sneak a car out of home just to have a try. Both of the experiments are done in good spirit, but power/energy/force if uncontrolled can kill and consume.
I personally have seen younger or older boys and girls having (thankfully non-lethal) accidents in the neighbourhood when they took the car around (most often happens in the afternoon when the elders are performing 'qailoola') and managed to hit it somewhere. The excitement of doing something naughty while hiding/defying their parents increases the adrenaline and we could theorize that the additional chemicals in the blood system could increase the chances of an accident. The fear of the parents finding out or the fear of causing some body-damage to the car (in those times the brain doesn't think about the possibility of killing oneself or others).
About the #2 type: Some parents realize that they cannot:
a) lock the boys in shackles,
b) neither they themselves are robots to watch the boys 24x7x365,
c) kids need some privacy too,
d) they should be left for some time unsupervised but in a safe place like their own bedroom or playground or with other trusted person to be able to develop their social skills and become independent.
These types of parents form a pact with their sons that they will not let them wait till they are 18 years. To avoid the #1 type of driving from happening, where the kids could even compel their friends to bring the car of another kid's father, the responsible parents let their boys drive:
a) while sitting beside them,
b) with their consent,
c) under their supervision,
d) on desolate roads or empty grounds etc.,
e) not in crowded spaces
There are some other conditions like you have to drive only in first gear (in automatics there is also option for 2, D3 or D4, but in the newer ones it is not) for the first few months.
Usually this type of driving opportunity comes around only on weekends. This mean there are only a few opportunities to have the steering until the kid turns 18.
Generally this is the most responsible parenting option, because you know as long as you provide some much-wanted item in a controlled fashion the urges are satisfied. But once you ban it at all then the urge will be satisfied at any cost, maybe in a far more dangerous fashion.
Having an adult sitting by your side who can at least attempt to bring an out-of-control machine to an stop is much better than sneaking out alone or with your friends, brothers or cousins, or even taking the little ones out for a ride. The adult sitting beside the teen/preteen serves other purposes also.
1) To keep the newer drive aware of the surroundings,
2) To control his/her urges to floor the pedal,
3) To keep the speed in check,
4) To be aware of surroundings,
5) To control any out-of-hand situation,
6) To avoid lynch-mobbing and thwart potential rape and/or kidnapping for selling out to slave-drivers, kidney-stealers or sex-traffickers (these is a plausible threat to younger male population of Pakistan but somehow considered more taboo than female ****** harassment and always swept under the rug).
7) To avoid undue police intervention resulting in unwarranted interrogation room torture and other kinds of abuse. (This is also a plausible threat, by far the most dangerous thing that can happen to anyone is not underage driving but state terrorism).
While many people would have arguments against this type of parenting decision, and before somebody puts arguments against this, I want to discuss why this is the best option for parents...
- In the absence of healthy and creative activities, where will the children (boys and girls) consume there energy? Land mafia has constructed plazas in the playgrounds, there is no electricity when you want to watch your favourite TV program. When you plan an outing with your family there is political unrest and people are bound inside their homes. You can't go to most picnic spots anymore due to law and order situation, consider those places (hill stations) which were attractive tourist spots a few years ago e.g Swat, Hunza, Nani Mandir, Ziarat etc. Simply put the new generation has no choice. They are already living on the edge and any shock sends them on the slippery slope where they get out of home and burn anything that burns.
- In this situation where there is rampant lawlessness, terrorist organizations, criminal cartels, land mafia and also political parties are recruiting like crazy, parents are already having too much difficulty. You pressurize your kids too much and they will rebel. They would quickly join a powerful law-breaker which would provide them with food, shelter, opportunities to travel, ****** adventures, power over law-enforcement agencies, all sorts of guns, license to kill etc. and also somehow marry 72 virgins by dying a 'graceful' death. Unfortunately there is no other option for the parents.
- You want to teach your sons to become good muslim. You tell them to go to the mosque five times and sit in the dars. Since the people recruit aggressively and stealthily, they will soon find the new group of young people who have recently started coming to the mosque (or those who started sitting in the dars after the prayer). They will make friends and brainwash the impressionable minds quickly.
Recruitment by the political parties, criminal cartels and gangs is done in a different setting. It is done outside the mosques, mainly in colleges or neighbourhood playground. If playground is not present then there is the gym, (most usually run by a political party within the premises of their area office), video game, snooker, carem club, or other recreational spot such as the small shade on the corner of the street.
Specifically stopping the boys going into these organizations is very difficult. When the 5 year old sees that the government clerk/policeman/ranger/army personnel is abusive towards his father/uncle/brother/ladies of the family, he witnesses a boil in himself. Then he says, my father is helpless, but one day I will become powerful and the policemen will fear me. I will teach them a lesson.
These organizations have diverse agendas, but they have a few things in common:
1. They recruit young people.
2. They recruit aggressively.
3. They enable you to take revenge from the society.
4. They can provide some services which are basic needs of every human being e.g. justice? (Could be called quasi-justice). Or a method of recourse in some places.
5. They take a big price for what they offer.
6. They sometimes use drug addiction to enslave people.
7. Somebody going in is never coming back. If they want to leave, they conveniently get terminated.
8. The above-mentioned facilities have to be provided by the state in the first place.
8. This is the most important point, read it again and again: They teach the boys do not listen to your parents. You are subscribing to a higher philosophy ... your parents are stupid and short-sighted. Your parents are materialistic. They want only money, a good house and luxurious life. They only think that you can get a degree and become Lord Macaulay's hypothetical clerk. Come with us, we have a better agenda. We will make you go in heaven. You will have the power, you will have good SUVs, you will have the TT, you will have the AK. You will go to places, to different countries, be in the action just like the movies. Everyone will be impressed and will fear you. This thing your parents cannot give you. They are stupid and pathetic short-sighted world-lovers. They cannot protect themselves and you from abuse. The military convoys treat them like dogs of the street. They keep pushing them off the road. Your parents are powerless people. And the real thing that matters in life is power. Do NOT listen to your parents.
Now couple all of the above brain-washing with another fact.
When you or me think about 15YO vs 18YO. Or even 10YO vs 18YO, you think of kid vs an older kid, but both are kids.
Let's have a paradigm shift and think from the mind of a 10YO boy. He thinks, "I am only 10. I have spent half my life without driving a car. Now I have to wait another equal amount of time!"
For somebody who has lived 60 years, 5 years are nothing. Just a little part of life. But for somebody who has lived only 13 years, 5 years is like eternity. Specially when the title post also mentions that people this age are unaware of risks, dangers, get easily excited, are impatient and are not afraid of dying. All those points that go against underage driving, also go in the favour of rebellion. This rebellion is costing the whole nation ... supervised underage driving isn't.
Under these external pressures parenting is already an extremely difficult job in Pakistan. Simply making your boys behave, not fall in unwanted type of company, get a good education, marry good girl, have kids and continue an upright life ... is an uphill struggle given the above circumstances. In this case parents have little choice but to bribe their kids, to not pressurize, to give them some sense of accomplishment, some sense of having control, some sense of achievement (consider peer pressure also, most boys are already driving alone or with parents' supervision - you don't give it to them, they will simply take it in their hands), and finally, some sense of dignity.
In a situation where the institutions of the state are in shambles, where the welfare state has been unable to control its organs of public security who are continuously devouring the citizens vis-a-vis missing persons case, rangers firing case at boat basin, etc., where pretty much every family has lost a young person to transnational terrorism, state oppression, opportunity crime, organized crime, looting, snatching or other lawlessness, land feuds, political disputes etc. there is only that much discipline you can use to control your kids.
You could give them things they want, but under your supervision, it is the only way.
Next point: Parents fear for the safety of their children. It would be deadly sin not to teach to your children how to run away if and when they see suitable. At this point of time when dacoits are running loose, kidnappers are everywhere and people are not safe inside their homes, it would be a huge disservice to your family if there are tools to escape at your home and your sons and daughters are not able to use them.
If you ask me anybody's preference, they would teach all their sons and daughters to drive as soon as they are tall enough. Not to kill them, only giving them a chance at life. If somebody fatally shoots the parent whilst driving, they still have the option to climb in the parent's lap and continue driving the vehicle to trying to escape as compared to getting killed or taken away. I don't know if they would be effective or not, or successful or not, because there is only so much a child or even an adult can do against professional, trained criminals, but even if its a one in a billion chance, I for one would put in the effort to teach my children the survival skills. And being able to operate an escape machine is a critical survival skill. The obligation to your children is greater than the obligation to a legal system that is a failure and not only cannot provide the protection to me and my children, but is ready to mistreat, hurt, abuse, extort and kill any citizen and at any unfortunate occasion.
If I have to make the choice between my son or daughter killing themselves in a traffic accident because he/she ran away from some dangerous situation and lost control of the vehicle, or the choice that he/she gets killed by some low-life car-snatcher, mobile-snatcher, or burda-farosh (child-trafficker), or gets kidnapped, then gets drugged, starved, raped 75 times in all possible holes, taken to some foreign country to some caves, parents asked for ransom, or worse he/she simply dies because of all the abuse and the parents never get to know what happened to their child? Is he/she alive or dead? Where is he/she? If dead, where is the body?
You can guess what choice would I make. What choice would you make were you in my place?
About the type #3: This is the most dangerous. Parents encouraging the dangerous behaviours and feeling proud about it. In fact, type #1 and type #3 of underage driving causes accidents. Type #2 underage driving is a highly controlled field experiment and though it does not have zero probability, some safety mechanisms are present.
Recently the type #3 underage driving has become more common. In direct relation to the failing of societal fabric as a result of other problems discussed elsewhere above, the power imbalance between the social classes is growing bigger. Some people can get away doing anything. The others do nothing and get punished. In this case some of the parents can let their children lose, just like somebody from India just shared in this thread that a person killed another human being for not opening the gate soon enough. These behaviours develop over time when the justice system demonstrated that it is not interested in treating every citizen as equal. Unfortunately there is no solution to this problem except a complete overhaul of societal values at the level of state. The problem is not underage driving. The problem is much deeper than that. The parents that let their children do it are right in their own thinking ... where the son of ex-PM is not safe, why would they let their children take a walk/bus/van around? Why would they trust them with a driver? And how can they find time to escort them around themselves? The only solution is to make the kids independent ASAP. To be able to escape any situation and to kill as and when they consider necessary. Our nation is at a very unfortunate stage at this time.
Everything is not under control of ordinary citizens. The power of state is the one enabler that through regulation, motivation, coercion, incentive, subsidy, and administration is the one that makes it possible to spend your life in the maximum possible positive manner.
While the responsibility of stopping underage driving is squarely laid on the shoulders of parents in the title post, why parents make this type of decisions, deliberately encourage it and find it necessary to take out the time to do it I have tried to discussed in detail.
(Some gentleman mentioned that the age of leaner's license may be whatever but boys as young as 9 were commonly found driving at - just a guesstimate - above 260 kph. You'd be peacefully doing 185 on a desolate highway and shoooooon, a Buick Roadmaster would cross you at lightning speed, beyond the horizon and never to be seen again. And laws are for the public roads only, the bediouns round up their camels in pickups and women could also be seen driving them. Bediouns are supposed to be more conservative but they are the ones whose charwahi would be hooning around in a pickup herding their camels. And the moderate, civil society women from the cities find out that they are not allowed to drive.)
In other countries also, the license requirement and age limit are for public roads only. If you have a big house, say 1000 acres then you can make a road on it and drive without a license or even an unregistered car and it would not be illegal. Even driving around on public land which is not a road, say some jungle. Construction companies that use construction machinery in housing societies etc. also do the same. Because it is private land. But when the construction is complete, if the roads are handed over to the municipal government and they are responsible for the maintenance, it becomes the public land. If it is a gated community and the homeowners association is responsible, then it is not public land.
In the same vein factories never get a number plate for their forklifts because they never drive them on public roads, just use them in their warehouses which is private property. But the traffic police use a forklift to clear the roads or wrong parking and that one has a number plate because it is being driven around on a public road.
On Pakwheels also, a few years ago someone shared a video there preteen son driving their 70-series Land Cruiser. The discussion was all about how to supervise the children while training them how to deal with powerful things, and not to commit illegal act which would leave a wrong impression on the young minds.
Obviously if an unnatural death happens then it becomes as issue to file for the state prosecutor, whether the death occurred due driving with a license, without a license, on public property, on private property, or in whatever other circumstances not even involving cars.
Now let's discuss the technical aspect of current accidents of cars getting out of control (of underage and of age drivers alike):
Cars have become extraordinary powerful over the years. The peak power of the engine figure may not ave changed by much but the area under the curve has definitely increase. This means that with even a light pressure on the accelerator, there is too much power.
The class difference that has increased in other aspects of the society can also be witnessed in the cars. While Honda and Toyota come up with new models every few year, complete along with new engines which are more powerful, Suzuki has decided to keep selling the same cars. As a result people who generally have an idea of older cars (and newly manufactured cars which are still made on the old design), when they sit in a newer generation car they do not have an idea that the power delivery and handling characteristic can be completely different. This applies to drivers of all ages. This is also one of the reasons why most accidents seen are of newer and more powerful cars which have new generation engines.
The cars have gotten bigger also. E.g the Swift 2010+ is much bigger than the Cultus. People who shifted from Khyber to Cultus found it similar in weight, handling etc. People who switched from Cultus to Swift were in for a surprise. Same goes with Corolla, its handling was same 1984-2000, then in 2000 it suddenly became bigger, taller, different rear suspension and people would drive thinking it is a just a Corolla. It would handle the same.
Similar things happened with Civic. Though the handling changed every time, 1984-1991 was similar, then dolphin came, 1991-2000 was similar, 2000-2006 was similar, and all these three were similar to each other. Then came 2006-2012. Very large and completely different. Then came the most recent model. Same power but narrower therefore less stable. High center of gravity. Unfortunately there are not many types of cars in Pakistan so drivers do not have too much exposure. They make mistakes when they sit in a new car by thinking it will be similar to so many other cars they have driven.
Driving 10 million miles in 20 years in one type of vehicle could not provide you that type of exposure which would be had by driving different cars for limited mileage.
The road infrastructure has gotten older since the last revamp, as a result the roads' surface is very slippery (the measure of surface slipperiness as I know is the British Pendulum Number, there may be other methods and metrics as well). Therefore braking efforts go in vain.