A mid-day report about the Khar police arresting two youths for driving dangerously while filming a stunt video on a car at Carter Road has resonated significantly with readers. The response has proved that this is a hot-button topic, with readers realising that stunts on cars, or even public transport at many times, need the strictest action. In this particular incident, the video, which went viral on social media, showed one of the accused sitting on the moving vehicle’s bonnet, posing a serious risk to public safety.
The incident came to the police’s attention after the video was posted by an X handle. Following verification, the Khar police initiated an investigation, and two men were identified and arrested. An officer said in our report that driving recklessly with a person on the bonnet is illegal and extremely dangerous for all.
Strictest punishments should be reserved for these irresponsible attention-seekers. These stunts are often dismissed and not taken seriously. People wave them away as young people are doing this for a lark, or they are simply having fun or a great time.
This attitude, like the stunts, is very dangerous. There is a lack of acknowledgement or realisation that this can lead to a huge accident on our roads, resulting in fatalities too. A family or loved one’s life can shatter in seconds because of this driving or careening around on car bonnets many times for social media ‘likes’.
This falls in the same juvenile genre as stunts inside and atop trains, and even sometimes, though this may not be too often, hanging out of buses, all for cheap thrills, too. A concerted campaign by our traffic authorities against this menace will drive home the message that stunts like these are not cool, but criminal.