Chennai: races involving young children along the east coast road (ECR) with confusing speed, frightening all other road users, has become common on weekends, forcing residents to demand the police hard in threats.
Reduced to some isolated incidents during many locking, such ‘races’ have often occurred after the government began to calm the rules, say residents along the stretch.
Involving high silver bets, with a number of ranges between 1,500 rs and rs of 10,000, the competition has young people on soup soup vehicles such as Yamaha RX100s and RX135s competing to each other to complete the stretch of 20 km from Kovalam to Mamallapuram in 10 minutes.
The participants were also ‘tested’ on their stuntperforming abilities, without thinking about the fact that the wrong calculation could also be fatal both for players and other road users, police said.
On several occasions, especially Sunday night, races extends to places such as Neelankarai which are below the larger Chennai corporate limit.
The participants and organizers were part of the WhatsApp group whose members took all precautions to ensure no disturbance by spoilsports.
Before the race starts, one or two members will rise forward to both directions to examine the existence of police personnel.
“On weekends, the traffic was thin and the presence of the police was minimal,” said Amit, a driver who returned from Puducherry with his friends when he was arrested in the midst of competition like that.
“It proved dangerous for other motorists, who had to stop until the driver passed,” he said.
The police who have taken action against such races in the past said most of them trapped in this action were adolescents without proper driving licenses and / or the right documents for vehicles.
Most twowheelers used in competitions have changed hands many times and tracking owners is a difficult task, said an officer.
They are modified vehicles rented by mechanical stores when users are afraid they may be captured by police and vehicles confiscated, he added.
In November, during the locking, the police kambakkam captured several racers and seized high-end bikes such as Suzuki Hayabusa, adventure BMW1290, Aprilia, Kawasaki Ninja, Harley Davidson and Ducati.
The investigation revealed that most of the racers came from places such as Adyar, Thiruvanmiyur, Madipakkam and Koyambedu, and headed for the Puducherry for the weekend.