LAHORE: The crackdown by Lahore Police against dangerous one-wheeling and motorcycle racing is continuing, with 127 people arrested during the month of August and 109 cases registered.
According to the spokesperson for Lahore Police, 1,058 suspects involved in one-wheeling have been arrested so far this year, and 990 cases have been registered over various incidents.
Capital City Police Officer Lahore Bilal Siddique Kamyana has directed that action be taken without discrimination against elements involved in one-wheeling and racing. He also directed that the deployment of patrolling teams at one-wheeling hotspots be ensured, and that a close watch be maintained on individuals previously involved in one-wheeling.
The CCPO Lahore has warned young people to avoid one-wheeling and illegal alterations to motorcycles, failing which they will face strict action.
He has also directed the traffic police to run an effective awareness campaign among citizens regarding safe driving.
The reference to alterations is the operationally significant part of the directive, and it is worth explaining.
Motorcycles used for stunt riding in Pakistani cities are routinely modified: silencers are removed or replaced to produce noise, rear sprockets are changed to alter the power delivery needed to lift the front wheel, footrests and rear mudguards are stripped to reduce weight, and headlamps and number plates are removed or obscured to frustrate identification.
Targeting the modification rather than only the act of riding has two enforcement advantages. A modified motorcycle is evidence available at any time of day, not only during the seconds a stunt is performed, and it can be seized at a checkpoint. It also raises the cost of the activity: a rider whose machine is impounded and de-modified faces a real financial penalty rather than a fine that can be absorbed.
A thousand arrests in eight months is a substantial enforcement effort, and it should be read alongside a second number in this newspaper’s file today: 241 road accidents reported in Lahore in a single 24-hour period, with 293 injured.
Motorcyclists are the most exposed road users in Pakistani cities. They constitute the overwhelming majority of registered vehicles in Lahore and an even larger share of trauma admissions at Mayo, Services and Jinnah hospitals. One-wheeling is the most visible form of motorcycle risk-taking, but it is not the largest contributor to that casualty load — helmetless riding, night-time riding without lights, pillion overloading and unlicensed riding are.
That is not an argument against the crackdown. It is an argument for proportion in how the effort is allocated. Arrests are countable and photogenic; helmet compliance is neither, but it saves more lives per unit of enforcement effort than any other single intervention available to the traffic police.
The CCPO’s instruction to run an awareness campaign is therefore the most valuable line in the directive, and the one most likely to be under-resourced. Deterrence works on the rider who is calculating risk. A significant proportion of one-wheelers are teenagers who are not — and for them, the intervention that works is reaching the person who owns the motorcycle and pays for it.
-with additional inputs reported by Irfan Malik
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