Bike racing along Chennai’s Marina beach claimed the life of a 19-year-old youth on Sunday morning after the bike he was riding pillion on, grazed against an MTC (Madras Transport Corporation) bus coming from the opposite direction.
Police identified the youth as R Shanthakumar, who was killed after he fell to the ground following the accident on Kamarajar Salai. Shanthakumar was a B.Com student from Pattalam.
His friend, 19-year-old Balaji, who was riding the Bajaj Pulsar 220cc, escaped with injuries. He has been admitted to the Tamil Nadu Government Multi-Super-Speciality Hospital.
Both of them were not wearing helmets.
Shanthakumar, along with seven other friends, were on their way to play cricket on Marina and were travelling on four bikes. At around 6.30am, Balaji overtook an auto rickshaw near the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose statue and the motorbike’s handlebar hit an MTC bus which was coming from the opposite direction.
“Though Shanthakumar had a driving licence, I refused to get him a bike, fearing such accidents could happen,” his father KR Ravi told the Times of India (ToI).
Kamarajar Salai, along the Marina, is known to be a frequent haunt of youth on two-wheelers indulging in bike racing and doing dangerous stunts including wheelies.
Traffic police personnel told ToI that they are short-staffed to control this menace and could do with some help from the law and order police.
On Saturday night, following videos taken by pedestrians which showed several bikers weaving through traffic and performing dangerous stunts, the police swung into action and confiscated 25 two-wheelers and registered 174 cases of speeding, drunk driving, riding triples and helmet-less driving.
Meanwhile, more than 100 people turned up in the early hours on Sunday and requested the traffic policemen to stop the racers on Kamarajar Salai. Following this, police barricaded the stretch and caught a few bikers who were racing on the road.