AMPANG, May 14 ― A 17-year-old girl was caught driving a Perodua Myvi with her 16-year-old sister to school which is 6km away from their home in Taman Keramat.
“My mother usually sends us to school but today, we had no one to send us so I decided to drive to school myself,” she said.
The teenager, who does not have a valid driving licence, were among 100 students checked by Kuala Lumpur traffic team during Ops Roda Sekolah in SMK Taman Setiawangsa here yesterday.
The teen’s mother, a homemaker in her 40s, said she usually sends her daughters to school but she couldn’t yesterday.
“I left the car keys at home because I thought their brother would send them but instead, they drove to school,” she said.
Another parent admitted his fault for letting his 15-year-old son ride a motorcycle to school.
“I know he does not have a licence but what can I do if he wants to ride to school?”
He said his son used to ride a bicycle to school and only started riding the motorcycle earlier this year.
“He did that because all his friends were also riding motorcycles, so he didn’t want to feel left out,” he said.
The father of two said the school should enforce strict rules and ban students from riding motorcycles to school.
“If not, the problem will continue as other students will also be influenced.”
A woman whose 16-year-old daughter received a summons for riding a motorcycle without a licence, said she had no choice but to allow her to ride.
“Our housing area in AU3, Taman Keramat does not have school bus services and it is 6km away from the school, so I have no choice.”
She said she would not allow her daughter to ride to school again until she got a valid licence.
The operation, headed by deputy Kuala Lumpur traffic chief ASP Sahimi Husin, saw 67 summonses issued to teenagers for various offences.
“The offences include riding without a valid licence, no side mirrors, failure to display the ‘P’ sticker and not wearing safety helmets,” Sahimi said.
He said a car and 25 motorcycles were seized during the two-hour operation.
The almost daily operations in schools are being carried out nationwide following the Ops Roda campaign launched by federal traffic police on March 12.
Malay Mail’s ‘Stop Killing Your Children’ campaign, specifically highlighting children riding motorcycles without helmets, has been running for the past two months after federal traffic police said the highest number of road deaths involved motorcyclists.
Images of schoolchildren and their parents breaking traffic laws are published regularly to highlight their carefree attitude.
