Pall of gloom descends on village as underage driving claims 2 lives

A pall of gloom descended on the region as two teenagers of Mohi village in Ludhiana district lost their lives to a road mishap. Reportedly, the bike they were riding on rammed into a tractor on Monday morning due to low visibility amid foggy conditions.

Though the exact sequences of events and the reasons behind the terrible tragedy are yet to be ascertained, preliminary investigations suggested that the underage victims hit the tractor from behind due to poor visibility.

The deceased were identified as Harsimran Singh Garry (16) and Navdeep Singh (15) of Mohi, both students at a nearby private school.

The inconsolable parents of the deceased cursed the moments they allowed their children to use their bikes to perform domestic chores early in the morning.

Gurcharan Singh, investigating officer, Sudhar police station, said no case had been registered as Amarjit Singh and Ranjit Singh, parents of Garry and Navdeep, respectively, had declined any action in the matter.

Amarjit and Ranjit said the tragedy occurred due to negligence on the part of the deceased, and nobody was responsible for the mishap.

The police said inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC had been initiated and the bodies would be handed over to the aggrieved families for performing the last rites.

Both the deceased were students of class XI at a private senior secondary school here, where school authorities and the administration had highlighted the consequences of underage driving of non-permitted vehicles.

Besides leaving the aggrieved families shattered, the double tragedy has pointed out the necessity of continuation of earlier campaigns to sensitise all stakeholders about the risks involved in underage driving.