As a mother of four boys, teenagers riding e-bikes had become one of my biggest parenting fears. But after speaking to friends of William Drake, 16, and Adrian Lai, 15, the two teenagers killed when their dirt bike collided with a bus in Sydney's west this week, that has completely changed. And I think everyone should be more worried about what happens when police get more authority to seize and destroy these bikes.
A middle class woman opens dialogue with some ‘teens’ over the senseless death of two of them during a criminal endeavour, and comes away from it thinking they have a point.
The following day, a number of their mates agreed to talk to me about their involvement in the growing illegal e-bike culture. I expected regret. I expected a wake-up call. Instead, I was met with defiance. And something far more confronting: fear.
Not, Reader, fear of dying in a horrifying crash. That takes sense, with they clearly lack.
'What else are we going to do?' one classmate asked me when I questioned whether this tragedy would stop ride-outs. 'How else will we be able to make friends and have somewhere to go?'He wasn't concerned about getting hurt, or worse still, losing his life before it even had a chance to really begin. He was worried about losing his freedom.
The freedom to end your short life in a twisted mass of mangled metal?
But what struck me most is this: e-bikes are not the real problem.
Not all kids play sport. Youth clubs are dwindling. And now social media, for many under-16s, is effectively off the table.
Oh dear, I’d forgotten this was Australia. Is that ‘unforeseen consequences’ I hear calling?
The young teens I spoke to didn't care what the law says, and they are willing to take the risk of being caught for the thing they love most. That's actually being with their mates, but their logical brains are still developing, and they think it is about the e-bikes. Which means if we ban them without replacing them, they will not stop.
Give them social media so they won't find more dangerous pursuits? Well, it's a theory...
1 comment:
Yes, boys on the verge of becoming young men are sometimes incredibly stupid about risk taking - and sometimes it extends well into adulthood. I have some sympathy, because I was deperate to get my hands on a Lambretta just so that I didn't need to go from the rural community, which my parents forced us to live in, to the nearest city where I had a chance of meeting girls. The bus had thugs, sons of agricultural labourers, who in a more sensible era would have been sent to die for England in some muddy Flanders field. It was a long time ago. The e-bike doesn't even need to sport L-plates, and charged at home is cheaper to run, doesn't need insurance, probably works better, and all the rest. I can see its attractions.
The first gallon of petrol plus a shot of 2-stroke oil when I filled up the Lambretta for the first time cost 3 shillings - 15p in 'new money' - which I thought was a lot in those days, as for that I could get into a club where a chart-topping band was playing. A pint of beer was 2 shillings, and most pubs had no qualms about serving under age customers, so the risk-taking was a ride home at night probably pissed, and using the reserve tank on the scooter as the money spent on 2-stroke was an overhead.
As an aside, a girl on the back was inevitably wearing stockings and suspenders, so you got a flash or two, even if nothing more was on offer!
Post a Comment