Cops not amused by bicycle rempits

BALIK PULAU: An anti-crime police patrol team was forced to detain four children aged between 10 to 14 on Tuesday for allegedly riding recklessly on the main road here with their bicycles in the first of such cases detected here.
Usually, it was mat rempits (rowdy motorcyclists) who were the cause of nuisance on the roads here but a routine police patrol team encountered a wild group of child bikers who were ignorant of road safety and guidelines, riding their bikes dangerously along Jalan Besar here last night.
In the process, they had actually obstructed the path of a police squad car.
Puzzled by their wild behaviour, the police swooped in and detained the four young suspects around 10.30pm.
The boys were escorted to the district police contingent headquarters where the police alerted their parents to come over.
The legal guardians were issued a traffic summon under Procedure 42 (1) (a) LN 166/59 which covers road safety guidelines.
The police also found that only three of the suspects remained schooling while another was a drop-out.
Southwest district police head ACP A. Anbalagan, who confirmed the unique case, said that the police have also contacted the district education authorities and the schools where the children were enrolled in.
They were asked to help the police in ensuring that such children do not end up committing more offences when they grow older.
"We want this action to act as a deterrent to other children. They need to be responsible road users and to not emulate the older mat rempits who are terrorizing our roads in the pre-dawn hours."
Anbalagan said the children also need to be educated about the perils of reckless riding on public roads, adding that they should not end up as street racers when they are in their teens.
The children were only studying in Year Three; rather young to be out of their houses alone, Anbalagan noted.
It was learnt that the children have also recorded their exploits on social media networks such as Facebook.
Their riding is extremely reckless as they move from one to another side of the road without any prior warnings to other road users travelling behind them.